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Ben Quilty's studio is located in a small industrial park near Sydney Airport. The surrounding units all house retail transport and packaging businesses, with the artist's studio happily marked out by a white Torana (in surprisingly mint condition) sitting neatly outside. Again, everything is not what it seems. The iconic vehicle - so seminal in Quilty's short rise to renown - is not the artist's daily drive. Quilty, who has to haul large canvases as well as a young family, drives that trustworthy stalwart of transportation, the Toyota HiAce. The studio itself is a simple, double-height space with source photography and coffee cups scattered about. Only a budgerigar head stands out, as though come to life and taxidermied as a relic of paintings past. That this accumulation of details challenges our preconceptions suggests one thing: we need to go deeper. When an artist comes into the spotlight at a young age and with a characteristic style, it is easy to default to a set of identity tags - he's the guy who does this; she produces that kind of work. Along these lines, it is interesting and surprising to hear that Quilty is working on some video pieces, but more on that later.

So how do we go deeper? We might start with painting itself. There is a quote attributed to Gustave Courbet, which is remarkable in its economy and acuity: 'Painting is the representation of visible forms ... The essence of realism is its negation of the ideal.' The tension that this simple quote expresses runs deep through the history of painting: 'realism', in painting, has always been an attempt to bring to the surface of the canvas some trace of the everyday, of what surrounds us everywhere. It is interesting that, compared to some other 'misunderstood' or ignored artists, Quilty has been very much accepted and embraced on sight, perhaps too quickly. The real interest in his practice will build slowly, and will come from the realist imagery he works with, not from the doling out of pigmented paint-cream. And so the question remains: What is it that this talented artist is painting?

What do you mean, 'I don't believe in God'?
I talk to him every day.
What do you mean, 'I don't support your system'?
I go to court when I have to.
What do you mean, 'I can't get to work on time'?
I got nothing better to do.
And what do you mean, 'I don't pay my bills'?
Why do you think I'm broke? Huh?

Megadeth, 'Peace sells', Peace Sells ... But Who's Buying? (1986).

 
Ben Quilty is represented by GRANTPIRRIE, Sydney and Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane.
 
This article appears in excerpted form. You can read the full article in the Spring 2007 issue of Art & Australia.