Updated ,first published
They arrived in courier vans, in the back of cars, and wrapped in bubble wrap, curtains, and blankets; artists walked the works in, accompanied by friends, partners, parents, and the occasional family dog.
Blue Mountains artist Richard Cutler arrived with his uncovered Archibald Prize entry – a portrait of composer Constance Colley – on the roof of his station wagon. It was still wet from a morning rain shower that had cast a vivid rainbow over the docks of the Art Gallery of NSW on the opening day of entries.
With friend and poet Brian Bell, Cutler removed his Archibald entry from the roof racks and wiped down the wet surface of his Sulman Prize entry, which sat underneath the Archibald during the drive to the gallery. In the boot, his Wynne entry lay on cushions amid paint cans, the odd suitcase, and his paint palette.
Cutler, 81, has been drawing weekly from a live model for more than 50 years. He has entered his huge, vibrantly coloured gestural works “three or four times before” and hopes to be hung “because paintings need to be seen”.
“That’s their reason for being. It’s lovely when they are [seen],” he says.
It’s been an hour since the docks officially opened for the Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman Prize entries, and already 50 works have been registered in what could be a record year. By the end of the week, some 2000 entries will have been accepted by the gallery’s packers, ready to be judged across the three contemporary art prizes.
Under cover, Sydney College of the Fine Arts graduate Stella Janssens is putting together The Self, a ceramic replica of the female form modelled on her own body, for her entry to the Wynne Prize – awarded annually for the best landscape painting of Australian scenery or figure sculpture by an Australian artist.
The life-size sculpture is made of Raku clay and ball-jointed. Taking inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman marble statues found in archaeological sites, Janssen attacked its body parts with a piece of sandstone to simulate chips and weathering.
“It’s really about the connection between the metaphysical and the physical self. It’s meant to be a relic, to be withered,” says Janssens as she twiddles with the internal mechanism featuring bungee cords. From a distance, Janssens appears like a surgeon standing over a patient. “It’s what’s left over once the consciousness has passed. She’s capable of all human movements, but she doesn’t stand; she’s too heavy,” she says.
Christopher Malouf entered the Archibald in 2024 with a portrait of Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers. This year, he has painted Australia’s only Catholic Cardinal, Melbourne’s Mykola Bychok, who was elevated by Pope Francis in 2024, making him the youngest cardinal in the global Catholic Church. He is captured in full regalia, sketched from a 10-minute sitting in Canberra last July.
“The rest of it I did back at my home studio. This one took 200 hours,” Malouf said.
At the same time, artist David Lesslie “is all abuzz” as he drops off his first-ever entry to the Archibald: a portrait of Peter Pigott, founder of the Uncle Pete’s Toys retail chain, who set up a sanctuary in the Blue Mountains to save the near-extinct parma wallaby.
“I’d done artwork in a friendly fashion of his house and gardens in the past,” Lesslie said. “I’ve been working on portraits the last few years, and he’s seen those and was sufficiently impressed to ask me to paint him, probably because he’s 89.”
He painted his subject “per request” beside his favourite garden statue and foregrounded some of the wallabies Pigott has fed out of his own pocket for 60 years.
Pigott bestowed upon the portrait its ornate 16th-century frame. Asked to rate his chances in the portrait prize that captivates Australia, Lesslie says: “I’m hoping I’ll be hung. I figure my chances are slim, but there you go. I only just found out that if I get chosen to be exhibited, I get $1,000 for selection. That’s enough of a carrot to dangle for me.”
Some 57 works were hung of the 903 portraits entered in the Archibald competition last year. Julie Fragar won the 2025 Archibald Prize with her portrait Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene), depicting artist Justene Williams.
Abdul Abdullah won the Packing Room Prize for his portrait of artist Jason Phu, No mountain high enough.
Entries for the Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman prizes will be accepted all week.
This year’s finalists will be announced on April 30, and the winners on May 8.
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