A portrait of the comedian Cal Wilson by the Cairns artist Andrea Huelin has won the packing room prize, a subcategory of the prestigious Archibald prize for portraiture.
Clown jewels, featuring the New Zealand-born comedian in an elaborate headdress and purple silk, collected the $3,000 prize, which is now in its 32nd year. The packing room gong was previously decided by the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s former head packer Brett Cuthbertson. For the first time, this year’s winner was chosen by three gallery staff, Timothy Dale, Monica Rudhar and Alexis Wildman.
Huelin said the inspiration for the portrait came from Wilson’s Instagram posts during Covid-19 lockdowns in Melbourne, when she would share elaborate headpieces she had made from toys, ornaments and a hot glue gun.
“Her poses reminded me of my sister and me making ourselves laugh by pulling funny faces in the mirror as kids and I could tell we share a similar sense of humour,” she said. “I posted a congratulatory comment and Cal wrote back and admired my paintings, so I asked if she’d sit for a portrait.
“The formal portrait mocks the 19th-century style in which women were once painted, while capturing her cheeky expression and sparkly headpiece.”
Wilson said: “I have not stopped beaming since I heard the news. I just love Andrea’s work, and I loved sitting for her … I’m thrilled that something so frivolous has been immortalised with such grandeur and skill.”
Wildman said Huelin’s painting “jumped out at us as soon as it arrived” and that it was “a great, joyful portrait of someone who has brought so much laughter to Australia”.
Huelin said she felt privileged to be the first artist chosen by the new packing room pickers following Cuthbertson’s retirement last year after 41 years in the job.
“It means such a lot to me as an artist from a regional centre ... to be included in the Archibald will really help me feel more connected to my industry,” she said.
The 57 finalists vying for the $100,000 Archibald prize, Australia’s oldest national portrait prize, were also revealed on Thursday, with self-portraits and artists painting other artists dominating the field.
The prize was established in 1921, with the subject being “preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics”, and there has been a long Archibald tradition of artists painting themselves and each other. This year is no exception, with almost half of the finalists submitting self-portraits or portraits of artists.
There is just one scientist among the sitters – the University of New South Wales quantum physics professor Michelle Simmons, painted by Charles Mouyat; as well as two politicians – the independent Sydney MP, Alex Greenwich, by Jason Jowett and the City of Sydney councillor Yvonne Weldon by Luke Cornish; and three sitters who could be regarded as people of “letters”: the writer Drusilla Modjeska by Katherine Hattam, the founding Saturday Paper editor, Erik Jensen, by Angela Brennan and Guardian Australia’s political editor, Katharine Murphy, by Judith Sinnamon.
More than a dozen portraits feature prominent people in entertainment, including the late musician Archie Roach (painted by Anh Do), the actor Claudia Karvan (painted by Laura Jones) and singer the Daniel Johns (painted by Matt Adnate).
Just two finalists feature sporting figures: the NRL footballer Latrell Mitchell by Zoe Young, and the boxer Harry Garside by John Hillier.
The AGNSW received 949 entries for this year’s Archibald, coming close to the record set in 2020.
One artist achieved the distinction of being the sitter in a painting up for the Archibald as well as being a finalist in the $40,000 Sulman prize for subject painting, genre painting or a mural project, whose finalists were also announced on Thursday, along with the $50,000 Wynne prize for landscape painting or figurative sculpture.
A portrait of Mostafa “Moz” Azimitabar by the 19-year-old artist Charlotte Ruth is a finalist for the Archibalad. Azimitabar’s submission for the Sulman prize, No Friend But the Mountains, borrows the title of a book written by a fellow Kurdish Iranian refugee, Behrouz Boochani. Azimitabar is known for his use of coffee and toothbrushes to create his work – these were the only materials he had to work with during six years in detention on Manus Island.
Ruth is not the youngest artist to make the Archibald cut. In 2017 a group of 301 boys aged between five and 12 from Sydney Grammar’s Edgecliff preparatory school had their joint work hung. Goodbye, Sir! was a portrait of the former Sydney Grammar principal John Vallance.
And in 1946 a 15-year-old Rolf Harris was selected as a finalist for his painting, Portrait of a schoolboy.
The finalists in all three prizes will be announced on 5 May and will be exhibited at the AGNSW from 29 April until 3 September. The exhibition then will tour Victoria and regional NSW.
