Andy Quiltys’ work is concerned with examining ideas surrounding the suburban Australian male. After working for 10 years as a commercial surfboard artist in Western Australia and the United States, in 2011 Andy turned his focus towards his personal art practice. With a grunge aesthetic, Quiltys’ works are characterised by aggressive and rapid marks made with a combination of ballpoint pen, aerosol and auto enamel paint.

In 2009 Quilty was awarded a High Commendation in the City of Perth Black Swan Prize for Portraiture. In 2011 he won the Portraiture category in the Cossack Art Awards, Australia’s richest regional art prize and received the City of South Perth Emerging Artist Award. In the same year he was a finalist for the second time in the City of Perth Black Swan Prize for Portraiture and was selected from a field of 3000 international entrants as a finalist in the Aesthetica Art Prize. Quiltys’ debut exhibition ‘The Fear’ opened in early 2012 to positive reviews and was a sell-out show.  Later that year he won the Kalgoorlie Boulder art prize, winning both the overall prize and the Mining theme award. In 2012 Andy was selected as Artist in Residence for the 140 Pop-Up project, the first of it’s kind in Australia. He also undertook the inaugural Cossack Art Awards 6 week artist residency in Cossack, Northwest Australia. He was selected for a third time as a finalist in The 2012 Black Swan Prize for Portraiture and was also selected as a finalist in the Joondalup Invitation Art Award where he won the ‘People’s Choice Prize’. In 2013 Andy was awarded the $15 000 overall award at the Mandjar Art Awards and was selected as a finalist in the Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize and the Salon des Refusés in Sydney.

Quilty has a Bachelor of Fine Art from Curtin University and a Diploma in Graphic Design.

Australia Day #2  - Jimblah 2013
ballpoint pen and aerosol on Arches paper
129 x 114cm