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Steel
Acquired 2002
Positioned deep within the wetlands, Ngargee reveals itself gradually as visitors move along the trail. Its angular steel frame cuts cleanly through the surrounding vegetation, creating a quiet architectural moment within the landscape.
The work leans gently into the natural slope of the site, allowing the bushland to grow around and through it over time. This interplay between constructed form and organic regeneration is central to the experience of Ngargee, encouraging visitors to pause and notice how art and environment coexist in a shifting, seasonal dialogue.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Nicholas Ilton
Nicholas Ilton is an Australian sculptor whose practice engages with structure, materiality and the relationship between built forms and the natural environment.
Working primarily in steel, his sculptures often carry an architectural presence, using line, negative space and angled planes to create frameworks that respond to their surroundings.
Ilton was active in Melbourne’s contemporary art community during the early 2000s, contributing to projects that supported experimentation and new directions in Australian sculpture.
His work is characterised by an interest in grounding sculptural form within a broader spatial and cultural landscape.
SELECTED CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Contributed to early 2000s contemporary sculpture developments in Melbourne.
Known for steel works that integrate architectural language with natural settings.
Created Ngargee to mark the opening of the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (ACCA), reflecting a focus on site, context and cultural activation.
ILTON AT MONTALTO
Ngargee became part of Montalto’s permanent collection in 2002, in the earliest phase of the Sculpture Trail’s development. The work’s structural clarity and geometric form create a compelling contrast within the densely vegetated wetland area, where branches, reeds and light continually soften and reshape its outline.
As seasons shift and the bushland responds, Ngargee offers an evolving conversation between human-made structure and natural growth, echoing the broader ethos of art and landscape in harmony that underpins Montalto’s collection.
