Sydney Contemporary

Ben Quilty‘s new series The Bottom Feeders will be shown exclusively at Sydney Contemporary, 12–16 September 2018, Tolarno Galleries stand E15. Works include paintings, etchings and sculpture.

Quilty’s new series of paintings, The Bottom Feeders, shows a greedy society with a cargo cult mentality, whose cultural leaders dispense materialist trophies. A corrupt Santa stands in for the men who were initially revered as figures of implicit generosity and assumed benevolence. While the original St. Nicholas served the needy, Santa now is a symbol of self-gratification, conspicuous consumption and corporate greed, with Quilty adding uncontrolled lust for good measure. – Michael Desmond, 2018