Elected a member of the prestigious artist-group Aosdána in 2007, Kiely has shown her works at numerous exhibitions in Denmark, Britain, USA and Ireland. Her paintings are represented in many public and private collections including: AIB, PMPA, An Bord Gais, Mayo General Hospital, University Hospital Cork, University of Limerick, the George Moore Society, Butler Gallery, Garter Lane Arts Centre, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, OPW, the National Self Portrait Collection, University of Limerick, A & L Goodbody, London.

Born in Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, Kiely began painting as a child, encouraged by the family's interest in art - her mother and father both sketched, and her brother became an animator who works for Steven Spielberg in Los Angeles. She attended Slade School of Fine Art, London and took a degree in graphic design at the Waterford School of Art, after which she spent two years working in New York and London in graphic design and architecture. She works in a studio built by the Irish abstract expressionist artist Barrie Cooke one of her most important influences - in a disused handball alley in Co Kilkenny.