About the Kelley Gallery

The Kelley Gallery handles a diverse spectrum of vintage fine art ranging from Old Masters to mid-20th century modernism, with a special focus on the American Scene, Early California Impressionism and Regionalism, Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolists, genre and figurative works, and pictures of historical and topographical interest. We cater to the independent-thinking and progressive-minded collector looking for the unique and the unusual.

Established in 1986, the Kelley Gallery has built its reputation as a source for private collectors, scholars, museums, and other galleries interested in acquiring, selling, or researching fine original paintings of the 16th through the mid-20th centuries.

For the discriminating and serious collector, the Kelley Gallery offers a range of personal curatorial services: Guidance & consultation in the areas of selective acquisition, conservation & restoration, authentication, art historical research, and forensics.

Kelley Gallery 
Established 1986
Director: Michael Kelley
Focus: Original paintings circa 1570-1970.

Institutional and commercial references:

Research consultant: “California Light, 1900-1930”, curated by Patricia Trenton, 1990; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee.

Curator: “Dreams, Visions and Imagination: Symbolic and Imaginative Paintings by California Artists, 1910-1930” (Mabel Alvarez, Claude Buck, Agnes Pelton, and Adele Watson), Sept. – Oct. 1990.

Research consultant: “Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945”, curated by Patricia Trenton; Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Fine Art, Provo, Utah, 1996-1997.

Research consultant: “Agnes Pelton, Poet of Nature”, curated by Michael Zakian, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, 1997.
Production consultant: “Impressions of California”, PBS television documentary, 1996, produced by Paul Bockhorst.

Research consultant: “California Progressives, 1910-1930”, curated by Susan Anderson; October 26, 1996 – January 12, 1997; Orange County Museum Of Art, Laguna Beach, California.

Research consultant: “The American Century: Art and Culture in America, 1900-2000” (a centennial exhibition); various curators; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York, 1999-2000.

Research consultant: “Circles of Influence: Impressionism to Modernism in California Painting, 1910-1930”; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California; June-September, 2000.

Guest Art Appraiser: The Questers Antique Appraisal Clinic, Bustamante Antique Show, Pasadena Convention Center, March 1999/2000.

Research consultant: “The Art and Life of John William Waterhouse”, Peter Trippi, Phaidon Press, 2005

Research consultant: “Murielle: The Story of a Model, a Painting, and the Artistry of John William Waterhouse” James Kaye, 2004, Xlibris.

Research consultant: “Joseph Kleitsch: A Kaleidoscope of Color”, Patricia Trenton, The Irvine Museum, 2007.

Research consultant:  “A Seed of Modernism: The Art Students League of Los Angeles, 1906-1953”, Will South, Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick and Julia Armstrong-Totten, Pasadena Museum of California Art, January 20 – April 13, 2008, accompanying catalogue published by Heyday Books.