Nigel Milsom, Untitled (Judo house part 2), 2009, oil on canvas, 195.00 x 136.00 cm, TCG22135

Nigel Milsom’s figurative paintings are rendered in a stark monochromatic palate. Captured at a larger than life scale, Untitled (Judo house part 2) 2009 depicts two martial arts fighters engaged in contest. The intense, concentrated velocity of their action is captured in Milsom’s use of high contrast, and in gestural brushstrokes that obscure the background so that the two bodies converge into one confounding, almost sculptural form. With a lighter hand, he convincingly details the folds of their crisp white uniforms, giving volume and mass to their presence. Here Milsom demonstrates his deft ability to render drapery, attesting to his interest in classical sculpture, a canon of art history that has been influential to him. Milsom graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the University of Newcastle in 1998 and later completed a Master of Fine Art from College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney in 2002. Since then he has exhibited widely, winning the Sulman Prize in 2012 and the Doug Moran National Portrait prize in 2013. In 2015, Milsom infamously won the prestigious Archibald Prize for his portrait of revered barrister and close friend, Charles Waterstreet. (Hannah Mathews)

Hannah Mathews, ‘Nigel Milsom’, Painting. More Painting, exh. cat. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, p.114.