Oli Kellett: Fountains

28 Mar-17 May 2025

Overview

“I watched the tiny droplets of water, almost completely weightless, and at the mercy of the slightest breeze, magical as they disperse through the crowds.” - Oli Kellett

HackelBury Fine Art presents Oli Kellett’s solo exhibition, Fountains from 28th March until 17th May 2025.

Following the success of Cross Road Blues (2016–2020) which captured still moments of people waiting at crossroads, Kellett continues his exploration of the urban environment with his latest series, Fountains.

In Fountains, Kellett shifts his focus from wide cityscapes to the delicate, often unseen beauty of tiny water droplets propelled into the air by the fountains of Trafalgar Square in London. Having travelled the world for Cross Road Blues, the artist now finds inspiration much closer to home—just steps away from his beloved National Gallery.

Using a telephoto lens and capturing these very fine water droplets suspended in the air, Kellett looks through a translucent veil, creating painterly, almost ethereal compositions. He embraces an element of chance, surrendering control to the atmospheric forces of wind, light, and weather. This approach reflects his broader artistic philosophy—the search for the universal in the everyday.

As with much of his work, Kellett was specifically drawn to images which evoke art historical references. The fragmented droplets echo the pointillist technique of Seurat, while other works recall paintings by Courbet, Auerbach or the dreamlike qualities of masters such as Monet, Van Gogh, and Whistler.

About Oli Kellett

Oli Kellett is a British artist based in Hastings, UK, who studied at Central Saint Martins in London.

From 2016–2020, he devoted himself to exploring the urban setting and our relationship with the crossroad and how people navigate their lives in his series Crossroad Blues. The book with the same title, Crossroad Blues, by Oli Kellett was published by Nazraeli in 2023. From 2020 onwards, his work took on a more introspective approach when he took a step back from the camera with his Life Drawings series and daily Soap Dish drawings.

While Kellett is strongly influenced by painting and the compositional techniques used, he loves the chance moment which one can capture with a photograph and is intrigued by moments of human contemplation. In 2018 Oli Kellett was awarded the Rose Award for Photography and the Royal Academy Arts Club Award, London. In 2021 he was shortlisted for the Photo London Emerging Photographer Award. He was awarded the Royal Photographic Society International Photography Exhibition 161 Bronze Prize. Works from Kellett’s Soap Drawings series were included in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2022 and 2023.

In 2024 Kellett was shortlisted for the 7th John Ruskin Prize and his work was exhibited in January 2025 at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London. Oli Kellett has works in private collections in the UK, Europe and the USA.