Artist Keith Drury unveils new work at Belfast International Airport
Artist Keith Drury, known for his richly detailed 3D cityscapes, has created a major new artwork for Belfast International Airport - but behind the commission is a deeply personal story about creativity, late-life autism diagnosis, and the partnership that helped him better understand the mind behind the work.
The specially commissioned artwork, Best of Belfast, commissioned by the SSP Group, is now on display at Flax and Soda in Belfast International Airport, placing Keith’s instantly recognisable style in front of millions of travellers, families, business passengers and visitors passing through Northern Ireland’s busiest airport.
For Keith and his wife Deborah, the moment marks a significant milestone for Keith Drury Art, the Belfast business they now run together. But it also represents something more intimate: a new chapter in a life and career that has moved from ministry to art, from paint to 3D technology, and from instinct to understanding.
Keith said: “It’s one of those moments you dream about. Not just a gallery audience but travellers, families, business people, holidaymakers. People moving through, catching a glimpse, and hopefully stopping and enjoying what I have created for the airport.
“Some people will glance and keep walking. But others will stop. They’ll look closer. And that’s always the hope - that they feel something.”
Deborah, whose doctoral research at Queen’s University Belfast focused on autism and virtual reality, was the first to recognise that Keith might be autistic.
She said the realisation came suddenly, after years of living alongside the patterns that would later make sense: Keith’s hyperfocus, sensory overwhelm, intense reactions to disruption and meticulous attention to detail.
Deborah explained: “Keith didn’t fit the narrow stereotype people still carry around. He’s social. He’s organised. He loves people. He’s a natural communicator.
“But then one morning it just clicked. Hyperfocus. Sensory overwhelm. Big reactions to small disruptions. The meticulous attention to detail. It all lined up.”
For Keith, the diagnosis was not a reinvention, but an explanation.
He continued: “The diagnosis didn’t change me. But it explained me. The hyperfocus can be overwhelming, but it’s also the thing that lets me build what I build.”
Keith’s pieces are known for their vibrant, lifted versions of Belfast and beyond - richly coloured, three-dimensional worlds filled with buildings, stories, small figures and hidden details.
Keith describes the work simply as: “Belfast, but brighter. Real, but lifted.”
In 2013, Keith Drury Art became a business. What began in a garage and a bedroom has grown into a recognisable Belfast creative brand, with Keith’s work sold through galleries, collected widely and now displayed at Belfast International Airport.
Deborah, who is now in the company full-time, said their story has always been about building something together.
She said: “For us, it’s also a milestone, because the partnership has always been about more than art.
“We’ve always been building something. Even before the art business existed.”
For the couple, the airport commission is a business achievement, a creative showcase and a deeply personal moment of recognition.
Deborah said: “There’s less shame and more clarity now. That difference has become both our explanation and our gift.”
Keith added: “Maybe people will see the artwork and feel a flicker of place, a spark of story and maybe the sense that it was built by a mind that sees differently.”