In The River, acclaimed Australian artist Ben Quilty turns his attention to a deeply personal place: a river hidden within a steep valley. Reaching this secluded location requires a deliberate descent into a landscape where towering rock walls create a sense of both protection and weight. Quilty describes this place as one where the pressures of history, grief, and environmental concern seem to hang in the air.
Unlike his earlier works, which often confronted political and social trauma directly, this new series reflects on the slower, less visible violence of environmental degradation. The paintings capture moments of extraordinary light as sunlight cuts across the valley floor, transforming the landscape into a dramatic stage.
Figures of men appear within the works, sometimes wielding axes and cutting into the surrounding bushland. These images continue Quilty’s long-standing exploration of masculinity, linking male action to cycles of extraction, consumption, and destruction. Timber becomes product, product becomes trend, and trend eventually becomes waste.
At times, a watchful eye emerges from the painted surface, unsettling the viewer and suggesting that we are not separate from the landscape, but implicated in its transformation. Through these richly layered paintings, Quilty offers the river as both a place of refuge and a witness to what is being lost.
This exhibition forms part of a larger body of work leading to a major institutional solo exhibition in 2027.
