Matt Adnate wins Archibald Packing Room Prize for Baker Boy painting

Showing all posts tagged: Archibald Prize

Matt Adnate wins Archibald Packing Room Prize for Baker Boy painting

31 May 2024

Matt Adnate has been named the 2024 winner of the Archibald Prize’s Packing Room Prize, with his portrait of Indigenous Australian rapper Baker Boy, AKA Danzal Baker.

As the name suggests, the prize is awarded by the staff of the packing room at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), which administers the Archibald. Packing room staff, who are among the first to see each year’s Archibald entries, are usually more interested in the aesthetics — or, how much they like the look of a painting — rather than other of its aspects.

The Archibald Prize is awarded annually for Australian portraiture, and is one of Australia’s most prestigious visual arts prizes. Participating artists can paint choose to paint any Australian subject, so long as they have some sort of celebrity status.

For the all the buzz the Packing Room Prize generates, check today’s AGNSW Instagram reel, it is derided by many artists who consider it the kiss of death. To date, no winner of the Packing Room Prize has ever gone onto win the Archibald Prize itself.

The work of this year’s fifty-seven finalists, who were also named today, is impressive, but I’m going to go out on a limb, and suggest history may be made this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if Adnate’s work takes out the top prize. Not long to wait until we find out though, the Archibald winner will be announced next Friday, 7 June 2024.

Julia Gutman wins 2023 Archibald Prize with Montaigne painting

5 May 2023

Gadigal/Sydney residing artist Julia Gutman has been named winner of the 2023 Archibald Prize, for her painting of Australian musician Montaigne. Awarded annually, the Archibald celebrates the finest works of Australian portraiture.

In other presentations, Zaachariaha Fielding took out the Wynne Prize for Australian landscape painting, while Doris Bush Nungarrayi won the Sulman Prize for genre or mural painting.

Andrea Huelin named winner of 2023 Archibald Packing Room Prize

27 April 2023

Cairns, Queensland, based Australian artist Andrea Huelin, has been named winner of the 2023 Archibald Packing Room Prize, with her portrait of New Zealand comedian Cal Wilson, titled Clown Jewels.

In addition, fifty-seven works were selected as finalists for the 2023 Archibald Prize, the winner of which will be announced on Friday 5 May 2023. This year over nine hundred entries were received for the annual art award honouring Australian portrait painting.

Finalists were also announced for the Wynne Prize for Australian landscape painting, the Sulman Prize for genre or mural painting, and the Young Archies, for artists aged five to eighteen.

The winners of these prizes will also be named next Friday, ahead of the opening of the exhibition of the works of the winners and finalists, on Saturday 6 May 2023, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in Sydney.

Changes to make Archibald Packing Room Prize vote democratic

24 March 2023

Changes are coming to the voting process used to select the winner of the Packing Room Prize, traditionally the first award made in the annual Archibald Prize for Australian portraiture.

In short, Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) packers unbox and install the works for the Archibald Prize exhibition, then decide on the portrait they liked the most. However the past head packers, Steve Peters and Brett Cuthbertson, both of whom have recently retired, held the deciding vote.

A new voting process will see a panel of three people, each with an equal vote, determine a winner:

The new Packing Room Pickers are Timothy Dale, Monica Rudhar and Alexis Wildman, three professional art handlers with 19 years of hands-on Archibald Prize experience between them. “In line with the discussions around how the prize was actually judged we felt that a more collaborative decision would be more appropriate,” Dale says.

I’ve always seen the Packing Room Prize as a light aside to the main competition, suspecting the winning choice was always subjective, which was fine by me. If I were selecting a winner, I’d choose the painting that personally appealed to me the most.

The changes could well suit participating artists though, who have long considered the Packing Room Prize to be the “kiss of death”, as, to date, no winner has gone on to win the main Archibald Prize.

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Archibald Prize, art, Australian art

Archibald winning Australian artist Nicholas Harding dies

3 November 2022

British born Australian artist Nicholas Harding died yesterday, aged 66. Harding won the Archibald Prize for portraiture in 2001 with a painting of Australian actor and theatre director John Bell as King Lear. In addition, Harding was named an Archibald finalist a staggering nineteen times, between 1994 and 2020.

Jeremy Eden wins Archibald Prize people’s choice award

4 August 2022

Sydney based Australian artist Jeremy Eden has won the 2022 Archibald Prize people’s choice award, with his portrait of Australian actor Samuel Johnson.

If you’re going to be in or near Sydney in August, you still have a chance to see the Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman Prizes exhibition, before it closes on Sunday 28 August 2022.

Winners of the 2022 Young Archies, Art Gallery of NSW

20 June 2022

Lev Vishnu Kahn, Claudia Quinn Yuen Pruscino, Nethali Dissanayake, and Jasmine Goon, have been named winners of the 2022 Young Archies.

Running alongside the Archibald Prize for Australian portraiture since 2013, the Young Archie competition is a chance for emerging artists aged five to eighteen to showcase their talents.

Over 2400 works were submitted this year, with seventy being selected as finalists. An exhibition of winners and finalists is on at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, until Wednesday 24 August 2022.

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Archibald Prize, art, Australian art

Blak Douglas wins Archibald with portrait of Karla Dickens

13 May 2022

Sydney based Australian Indigenous artist Blak Douglas has been named winner of the 2022 Archibald prize for Australian portraiture, for his painting of Wiradjuri installation artist Karla Dickens.

Claus Stangl wins 2022 Archibald Packing Room Prize

5 May 2022

Sydney based New Zealand artist Claus Stangl has been named winner of the 2022 Archibald Packing Room Prize, with Taika Waititi, an acrylic on canvas painting. The winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture will be announced on Friday 13 May 2022.

Del Kathryn Barton wins Archibald Prize 2008

7 March 2008

Sydney based Australian artist Del Kathryn Barton has been named winner of the 2008 Archibald Prize, with a self-portrait featuring her children: You are what is most beautiful about me, a self-portrait with Kell and Arella.

Born in Sydney in 1972, Barton has a Bachelor of Fine Art from the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW, where she taught for three years until 2003. She has had regular solo exhibitions since 2000 and has participated in national and international group shows including the Helen Lempiere Travelling Art Scholarship, the Blake Prize for Religious Art and the Sulman Prize. She was a finalist in the 2007 Dobell Prize for Drawing.

The Archibald Prize Exhibition opens to the public tomorrow, Friday 8 March 2008, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in Sydney.

Update: for those interested, the portrait measures 180 centimetres (cm) wide x 280 cm high, and as far as I can tell the work is a combination of illustration and painting.

Originally published Friday 7 March 2008.