Ben Quilty Devil/God Albertz Benda NYC 2026

# Ben Quilty Devil/God Albertz Benda NYC 2026

Ben Quilty: Devil/God opens 15 October–14 November 2026 at albertz benda, 515 West 26th Street, New York — the Australian painter’s first solo exhibition in New York. Two days before the Chelsea opening (and days into Frieze week’s London echo), this ADVANCE guide locks dates, venue and the show’s published themes: masculinity, power, religious imagery and ecological crisis.

Ben Quilty Devil/God: what the gallery is presenting

albertz benda’s press release frames Devil/God as an exploration of Quilty’s visual language between the personal and the cultural. Quilty (b. 1973, Sydney) is known for large-scale, heavily impastoed paintings and installations in which materiality sits uneasily beside image. He worked as an official Australian war artist in Afghanistan in 2011 (After Afghanistan) and had a major GOMA survey in 2019. Collections holding his work include the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia and the University of Queensland Art Museum.

Themes: masculinity, cars, Mary and the earth’s scream

The gallery text opens with Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1928 story “When the World Screamed,” mapping Professor Challenger’s fantasy of stabbing a sentient Earth onto contemporary ecological collapse. Recurring Quilty metaphors — sports cars and luxury SUVs as male pride, an oversized carburettor scoop that makes driving impossible — appear alongside a carved figure of Mary made from alternating layers of leather and plywood, materials that evoke the tawse used in some church-school corporal punishment. Ambiguity is the point: victim and perpetrator, hope and misery, beauty and menace in the same stroke. The title Devil/God registers exhaustion with institutions that claim moral authority while enabling exploitation.

Why this opening matters in mid-October

Devil/God is a distinct Chelsea solo — not a twin of London openings already covered on this desk (Yinka Shonibare at the National Gallery from 15 Oct; Michael Landy at Soane’s from 14 Oct; Frieze London 14–18 Oct). For those hubs see https://www.thesundayprofile.com/yinka-shonibare-gainsborough-2026 and https://www.thesundayprofile.com/frieze-london-2026. Quilty’s NYC debut deepens the Art exhibitions cluster with an Australian painter’s first New York solo rather than another museum survey.

Practical visit notes

Venue: albertz benda, New York (Chelsea). Dates: 15 October–14 November 2026. Confirm hours and any opening reception on the gallery site before travel; do not invent ticket prices — this is a commercial gallery presentation, not a museum timed-ticket show.

How to read the show without a checklist

Quilty’s practice rewards slow looking: a car that replaces a head, a Mary whose material history is more violent than her pose, brushwork that holds both menace and pity. The gallery’s Conan Doyle framing is a literary key, not a required reading list — you can enter through the paintings alone. For visitors already walking Chelsea during mid-October openings, Devil/God is a concentrated dose of Australian contemporary painting that rarely anchors New York solo calendars; that scarcity is part of why this ADVANCE piece exists two days out.

Search intent this guide answers

Queries for Ben Quilty Devil/God want dates, gallery name and whether this is a museum retrospective or a commercial solo. Answers: 15 October–14 November 2026, albertz benda New York, first NYC solo (not a survey museum tour). Secondary intent often asks what the works are “about” — masculinity, power, religion and ecology, per the gallery text — without inventing wall-label quotes beyond published materials.

Sources

albertz benda exhibition page and press release, “Ben Quilty Devil/God October 15 – November 14, 2026.” Gallery press notes quoting Conan Doyle and describing Mary / car works. Wikipedia / institutional bios for Quilty’s Afghanistan commission and GOMA survey (cross-check dates). Vasari Codex / secondary listings for venue address confirmation.