Ben Quilty

Quilty was born in Sydney in 1973, and grew up in Kenthurst in Sydney's north-west. He was educated at Kenthurst Public School and Oakhill College, where he exhibited his HSC artwork in ArtExpress in 1991 (or 1992). Subsequently, Quilty was selected as the recipient of the Julian Ashton Summer School Scholarship. 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. ==Career==

In 2002 Quilty won the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, which increased his exposure to the public, Quilty's experiences as a war artist and the work he produced as a result of it was explored in the ABC TV's Australian Story program "War Paint" screened on 3 September 2012. ==Style, subjects and practice==

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. 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. 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. He lives and works in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. ==Other roles and activities==

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 was spent on its restoration and conversion. It opened in October 2021, 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. ==Honours and awards==

• 2018: Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales • 2015: Honorary Doctorate of Creative Arts, Western Sydney University It was his seventh entry to the prize. • 2009: Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, Sydney, for his painting of Australian musician Jimmy Barnes • 2004: Kings School Art Prize, Sydney • 2004: Metro 5 Art Prize, Melbourne • 2002: Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney • 1991: Julian Ashton Summer School Scholarship, Sydney • 1989: Rocks Painters Picnic, Age and Open Winner, Sydney Festival ==Exhibitions==

Quilty's works have been exhibited at many locations, both solo and group exhibitions. Solo exhibitions In 2019 Quilty, a major touring survey exhibition, the first in a decade, curated by Lisa Slade of the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), was hosted first at AGSA (March 2019), and the Art Gallery of New South Wales (October 2019 as well as including new Rorschach-based works documenting the Myall Creek massacre and an hitherto unrecorded massacre in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY lands) in South Australia, titled Irin Irinji. The run at the Art Gallery of New South Wales coincided with the release of the documentary Quilty – Painting the Shadows, made by Catherine Hunter, on ABC Television on 19 November 2019. A book, Quilty, was published to accompany the exhibition, which includes essays Slade, Quilty's close friend, author Richard Flanagan, and head curator of International Art at the Art Gallery of NSW, Justin Paton. Other solo exhibitions include: • Ben Quilty LIVE! University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane (2009) • Ben Quilty, Saatchi Gallery, London (4 July 2014–3 August 2014) • Ben Quilty, Kuta Beach, Hong Kong Art Fair with Tolarno Galleries, Hong Kong (2014) • Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan, Australian War Memorial Special Exhibitions Gallery, Canberra, touring (2014–2016) Group exhibitions Group exhibitions include: • An Oeuvre Both Abundant and Diverse, SCA Galleries, Sydney College of the Arts (2010) • Embodied, Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong (7 November 2014–10 January 2015) • Australian Artists in Bali: 1930s to Now, McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery, Langwarrin, Victoria (2015) • NGV Triennial 2017, National Gallery of Victoria (15 December 2017–15 April 2018) ==Collections==

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, • Art Gallery of South Australia (Self portrait (as Cook ...) (2011), and Self portrait (as Cook with sunglasses) (2011)), • Australian War Memorial, Canberra • Bendigo Art Gallery (Kuta Rorschach No 2 (2013), acquired 2014), • Goulburn Regional Art Gallery (Torana (2007), and Skull Rorschach (2009)) • Macquarie Bank, Australia • Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (Van Rorschach (2005), acquired 2007), • National Gallery of Australia, Canberra • National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne • Parliament House, Canberra (Lead Shot Rorschach (2013)), • Queensland Art Gallery (Sergeant P, after Afghanistan (2012)). • Shepparton Art Museum (Jug (Loydy) (2014), acquired 2018, Conscript (Private Phil Butler) (2014), acquired 2016, Scream after Leonardo (2014), acquired 2018, Jug (Nose) (2014), acquired 2018, Jug (Leonardo) (2014), acquired 2018 • University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane ==References==