[6] In 2002 Quilty won the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, which increased his exposure to the public,[1] and he has been working full-time as an artist since then.

[7] From 11 October until 3 November 2011, Quilty was attached to the Australian Defence Force observing their activities in Kabul, Kandahar and Tarin Kowt.

[1] Quilty is known for his distinctive style of oil painting and a range of topics which includes portraits (he won the Archibald Prize for his portrait of artist and friend Margaret Olley), examination of masculine culture, expression of psychological interiors, and others which show his engagement with a range of social issues, such as the death penalty, asylum seekers, and massacres of Indigenous Australians.

Called Ngununggula (meaning "belonging" in the local Gundungurra language), the gallery was created out of an old dairy, after Quilty led a major fundraising campaign and A$7.6 million was spent on its restoration and conversion.

The exhibition included works from his time in Afghanistan, Greece, Serbia and Lebanon, and celebrated his connection to artist Margaret Olley[21] as well as including new Rorschach-based works documenting the Myall Creek massacre and an hitherto unrecorded massacre in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY lands) in South Australia, titled Irin Irinji.

[7] The run at the Art Gallery of New South Wales coincided with the release of the documentary Quilty – Painting the Shadows, made by Catherine Hunter, on ABC Television on 19 November 2019.