Ben Quilty is an Australian artist born in Kenthurst, New South Wales, in 1973. In 1994 Quilty completed his Bachelor of Visual Arts, majoring in painting at the Sydney College of the Arts. He later went on to receive a certificate in Aboriginal Culture and History from Monash University in 1996, and in 2001 a Bachelor of Visual Communication at the University of Western Sydney.
In 2002 Ben Quilty was awarded the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship for his work Elwood Park (2002) which granted him a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. This was the first time that he was able to paint full time, as before he won the scholarship he was forced to work as a freelance editor to make money.
While in Paris Quilty’s works began to draw from Australian Icons, and the cultural rites of passage that were undertaken by Australian males growing up in the 1980s. These works payed particular attention to the violent and damaging behaviour surrounding the rituals of young male culture, in particular depicting fast cars, fast food, and the influence of drugs and alcohol. Quilty later undertook residencies at The Gunnery, New South Wales Ministry for the Arts (2004), Hill End, Bathurst Regional Gallery (2005), and the Australian Council of the Arts Barcelona Studio, Spain (2007).
Late 2006 saw the birth of his first son Joe. Quilty began painting portraits of his young son, capturing moments of Joe crying or transforming him into a burger.
Quilty’s painting style can be recognized from his thick layering of paint. He uses different forms of palette knife, smearing the paint to create his figures. Quilty does not attempt to hide the strokes from his knife, rather he utilises the thick slabs of paint to block in large areas of the canvas, with high contrast colours.
Some of his works, for example Joe Installation, Alexandria Studio (2006), have also combined aerosol paint with his oils. Quilty has repeatedly used spray paint as a sketching technique, drawing his forms first with the aerosol can and then using oils over the top, allowing the two mediums to appear together on the end product of the canvas. Spray paint is also employed to extend out of the canvas and onto the gallery walls. The Lot no.1, The Lot no.2 and Skull-Burger 2 (2006) is an example of this where Quilty paints lines from the three canvas’ and then onto the wall joining the works. This is a way to connect paintings with other works on display, or to appear as a frame to a work hung on the wall/ Evident in Jesus Rorschach, studio installation (2008). This transforms a painting into an installation, as when the painting is put on display at different locations Quilty is required to repaint the frame onto the wall, thus altering the work every time. As exemplified by Jesus Rorschach (2008), Quilty can make the sprayed on frame as big or as small as he pleases with the only restrictions being the size of the wall the canvas is put on. This type of painting can be seen as an outcome to his residency in Barcelona. While in Spain he was exposed to graffiti culture, as well as religious iconography. Religious rorschach images are most strongly apparent on the walls of churches in Spain. This became a particular interest of Quilty’s, and emerged as major components to many of his later works. Quilty has since used the rorschach technique in painting religious imagery, skulls, and portraits.
Quilty’s works after his time in Spain began to focus on icons in Australian culture. For example, he began to paint images of Captain Cook and John Howard paired with portraits of anonymous participants of the Cronulla riots, his screaming son and intoxicated friends. These are seen in his 2007 solo exhibition 'Pride and Patriotism’ (2007).
Although Quilty is best known as a painter, he has also exhibited sculptural and photo media works. These include Poly (2004), Tea Cup (2007) and FTW, After Sam ‘Bull’ Hall (2006).
Since his first exhibition at the Step Gallery, Sydney in 2001, Quilty has regularly exhibited his work in solo shows. Along with 'Pride and Patriotism’, GRANTPIRRIE (2007) major solo exhibitions include: 'Young and Free?’, Jan Murphy Gallery (2004), 'Smashed’, GRANTPIRRIE, Sydney (2008) and 'CRITICAL IMPACT’, GRANTPIRRIE, Melbourne (2009).
Quilty has also participated in many group shows including the 'Wynne Prize’ Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2004), 'Dobell Drawing Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2006), 'National Artist’s Portrait Prize’, University of Queensland Art Museum (2008) and the 'Doug Moran National Portrait Prize’ (2009). In 2007 he won the National Artists’ Self Portrait Prize for his painting Self Portrait Dead (Over the Hills and Far Away), and in 2009 he won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize for his portrait of Jimmy Barnes, There But For The Grace of God Go I, Number 2(2009). In 2011, in his sixth year as a finalist (2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011), Quilty was awarded the Archibald Prize for his portrait of Margaret Olley.
Quilty’s work is held in public and private collections throughout Australia, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Macquarie Bank Collection, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery.
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