AUTISM, ART AND THE LOVE STORY BEHIND ‘BEST OF BELFAST’
Belfast artist Keith Drury unveiled new work at Belfast International Airport
Belfast 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 said: “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 said: “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.”
Before establishing himself as one of Belfast’s most distinctive contemporary artists, Keith trained for the Presbyterian ministry and served for many years at May Street Presbyterian Church in Belfast.
There, he became known for bringing people together in imaginative ways, using the city-centre church as a space for community, music and youth engagement.
Keith said: “They thought the church, with its ageing congregation, would quietly fade away. But the space and city centre location were incredible.
“We ran Sax in the City, where a saxophonist would play for people. We had a jazz night club. We even did nightclub-style events for local teenagers – somewhere safe for them to come, dance and burn off steam.”
Deborah said: “Keith has always been about atmosphere. He creates worlds. He brings people into them.”
That same instinct now runs through his art. 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.”
That partnership is also hidden inside the work itself. Deborah appears in Keith’s artworks as a girl holding a balloon – a recurring personal detail that turns each piece into something quietly intimate.
Deborah said: “That’s Keith. That’s how he leaves little love letters in the work.”
Keith added: “It’s affection. It’s us.”
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 said: “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.”
Best of Belfast by Keith Drury is now on display at Flax and Soda at Belfast International Airport.
