There is an obsessive intensity to the painting practice of Kirsty Neilson. Her celebrated career to date as a portrait painter¾including being a three times finalist in the Archibald Prize (most notably with her 2021 portrait of Australian of the year, Grace Tame)¾has been marked with laser-like technical precision. Her inclusion in other major awards¾the Darling Portrait Prize, and the Portia Geach Memorial Award in recent years¾with works that celebrate those championing social justice goes to the heart of her commitment to a more equitable world.

Throughout Neilson’s career, the counterpoint to the rigours of realist portraiture has been a joyously expressive landscape oeuvre. Created en plein air from the desert to the pastoral, she has immersed herself in the landscape.