Figures In A Landscape

In a conversation led by curator Sophie O’Brien, Shaun Gladwell and Ben Quilty reflect on Arthur Boyd’s work and its ongoing resonance in contemporary art.

Bringing together two leading Australian artists and friends, the discussion considers Boyd’s work through the lens of artistic practice, and how his representations of the human figure continue to shape approaches today.

Ben Quilty is a Sydney-based Australian artist known for his bold, expressive painting style, characterised by thick impasto, smudging and a visceral approach to the picture plane. His work often features unsettling or iconic imagery, exploring the complex relationship between the personal and the cultural, and affirming the continuing power of painting as a contemporary medium. Quilty has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally, including a major survey exhibition that toured the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and QAGOMA. He has been a finalist in the Wynne and Archibald prizes, winning the Archibald Prize in 2011. His work is held in major public and private collections across Australia.

Shaun Gladwell uses disciplines of human movement to investigate function and meaning within urban, natural, and extended reality environments. He works across a range of media, from painting and photography to installation and performance, but he is best known for his video works dealing with the human body in motion. His works are shot in natural and urban environments and explore the relationship between landscapes and people. Whether focusing on skateboarding, surfing, or dancers, Gladwell’s work centres the body of the performer in relation to the natural or built environment around them. In every medium available to him, Gladwell investigates the full range of human experience, from the creative power of play to the complexities of geopolitical conflict. Throughout his career to date, the artist asks, ‘what is it to function within a collective social and political corpus?’