Jan Murphy Gallery is pleased to present, 20 Years,by Ben Quilty.
This unique collection of artworks spans two decades of Ben Quilty’s practice and commemorates his 20th year with Jan Murphy Gallery. This period is witness to defining moments in the artist’s career, presenting works that carry profound personal significance. This exhibition can play a key role in weaving a narrative around extensive bodies of work and drawing attention to pivotal moments of insight and personal agency. For audiences, they can offer a vivid and imaginative voyage, akin to immersing oneself in a book. These works have the capacity to lead the audience through the internal landscape of an artist’s mind, and are undeniably vital for charting, or at least endeavouring to chart, the expansive language of an artist’s career. Certainly, as an artist, presenting two decades of work can evoke a sense of introspective unease. However, it should also be cherished as an opportunity to step back and see a whole picture of oneself.
Ben Quilty (Born 1973) has exhibited in a number of significant national and international exhibitions including ‘Dark Heart’ Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2014); ‘Painting. More Painting’ Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (2016), ‘NGV Triennial’ (2017) and the Bangkok Art Biennale (2022–23). In 2019 the Art Gallery of South Australia presented the first major survey exhibition of Quilty’s work with the exhibition touring to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). Quilty won the Archibald Prize in 2011 and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 2009. In 2011 Quilty travelled to Afghanistan as an official war artist with The Australian War Memorial. His work is represented in numerous major public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and QAGOMA.
Image: Ben Quilty, The toy, 2018, oil on linen, 81.0 x 70.0 cm
