In this formidable new body of work, Quilty focuses almost exclusively on the human figure –especially heads, eyes and mouths – as he wrestles into existence urgently expressive, even grotesque, embodiments of the way many of us are feeling right now, the artist included. This collection of works, Ben’s trinkets, has all of this within […]
Ben Quilty’s painting is not polite. Smeared, smudged, caked and slapped onto the picture plane with bold virtuosity, his rich impasto works challenge assumptions. Using bold and unsettling subjects, Quilty explores the problematic relationship between the personal and the cultural. Iconic imagery, animated by a textural third dimension, also becomes a vehicle for painterly meditations […]
Perhaps the central question then, in ‘Shadowed’, is the articulation of human difference, whether that be in our mental states or in our appearance. The vacuums and shadows generated by these processes are utilized fully, expressive tools and not accessories to form. Meanwhile, ‘The Daughter’, a familiar face for the artist, hums with a sickly incandescence, and might […]