Ben Quilty (b.1973) lives and works in Australia. Widely known for his thick, gestural oil paintings, Quilty has worked across a range of media including drawing, photography, film, sculpture and installation. His works often serve as a reflection of social and political events; from the current global refugee crisis to the complex social history of our country, he is constantly critiquing notions of identity, patriotism and belonging.

Quilty’s work has been exhibited in a number of significant national and international exhibitions including ‘Show Me Your Sexy Urbanity Fotos’, Hohenstrausenstr, Frankfurt, Germany (2004); ‘Truth and Likeness’ National Portrait Gallery, Canberra (2006); ‘Together in Harmony for 50 Years: Linking Australian and Korean Arts’, Korea Cultural Exchange Centre, Seoul, Korea (2011); ‘Trigger-Happy: Ben Quilty’s Brave New World’, Drill Hall Gallery Australian National University (2013); ‘Dark Heart’ Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2014); ‘Panorama’ Tarrawarra Art Museum (2016); ‘Painting. More Painting’ Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (2016); ‘When Silence Falls’, Art Gallery of NSW (2016); ‘Charles’ Insitu, Kurfurstenstrasse, Berlin (2016); ‘Mad Love’ at Arndt Art Agency (A3), Berlin (2017) and the’ NGV Triennial’ (2017); ‘Quilty’ Art Gallery of South Australia, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Art Gallery of NSW (2019).

In 2011 the Australian War Memorial commissioned Quilty to travel to Afghanistan as Australia’s official war artist. The resulting body of work exhibited at the National Art School Gallery in 2013 received critical acclaim and went on to tour art galleries across Australia up until 2016. In 2014 he was selected as the overall winner of the Prudential Eye Award, Singapore and invited to become the first Australian to hold a solo exhibition at Saatchi Gallery in London (2014). He is represented by Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne and Arndt Art Agency, Berlin.