Ben Quilty
Ben Quilty (born 1973) is an Australian artist and social commentator, who has won a series of painting prizes: the 2014 Prudential Eye Award, 2011 Archibald Prize, and 2009 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. He has been described as one of Australia's most famous living artists.
Ben Quilty
1973 (age 50–51)
Australian
2014 Prudential Eye Award
2011 Archibald Prize
2009 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
Early life and education[edit]
Quilty was born in Sydney in 1973,[1][2][3] and grew up in Kenthurst in Sydney's north-west.[4]
He was educated at Kenthurst Public School and Oakhill College, where he exhibited his HSC artwork in ARTEXPRESS in 1991 (or 1992[5]). Subsequently, Quilty was selected as the recipient of the Julian Ashton Summer School Scholarship.[3][6]
After high school, Quilty followed his interest in art and obtained a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Painting from Sydney College of the Arts at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1994. He earned a Certificate in Aboriginal Culture and History in 1996, and went on to study visual communication, design and women's studies at Western Sydney University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 2001.[6]
Style, subjects and practice[edit]
Quilty's work has been influenced by a number of life experiences, including the drug and drinking culture of his youth, later political activism, and his experience as a war artist.[1]
In 2002 he exhibited a series of paintings featuring his beloved Torana car, signifying the rituals of mateship among his cohort. A few years later, Van Rorschach (2005) represented a white minivan, a more practical vehicle. While, despite the name, this painting did not use the Rorschach technique (aka inkblot technique, used for psychological evaluation), he started using this technique in his later work, to explore the often violent colonial history of Australia.[1]
Quilty is known for his distinctive style of oil painting and a range of topics which includes portraits (he won the Archibald Prize for his portrait of artist and friend Margaret Olley), examination of masculine culture, expression of psychological interiors, and others which show his engagement with a range of social issues, such as the death penalty, asylum seekers, and massacres of Indigenous Australians.[11][7]
He lives and works in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.[1]
Other roles and activities[edit]
Quilty was a driving force in the establishment of a new gallery, the first in the Southern Highlands, situated in the grounds of historic Retford Park at Bowral. Called Ngununggula (meaning "belonging" in the local Gundungurra language), the gallery was created out of an old dairy, after Quilty led a major fundraising campaign and A$7.6 million was spent on its restoration and conversion.[12][13] It opened in October 2021,[14] and in mid-2022 featured a major exhibition of the work of brothers Abdul and Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, along with video works by Tracey Moffatt.[12]
As well as being held in private collections in Australia and around the world, examples of Quilty's work are held in a number of public collections in Australia,[1] including: