Archibald Prize 2025: Catch One Last Look at Australia in Portrait
Image: Art Gallery of NSW's old courts. Source: Art Gallery of NSW website
There’s just a few weeks left to catch one of Australia’s most storied exhibitions. The 2025 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes are on show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until August 17, showcasing the faces, landscapes and ideas shaping the nation’s current visual culture.
Established through the 1919 will of the eccentric J.F. Archibald, the Archibald Prize, not without its controversy, was simply designed to celebrate portraits “preferentially of a man or woman distinguished in arts, letters, science or politics.”
Uniquely, it came with two pivotal key conditions: it’s judged only by the Gallery’s Board of Trustees, not art world insiders, and the work must be painted within the 12 months leading up to the award–ensuring the prize is a reflection of the people and personalities of its time.
Julie Fragar wins Archibald 2025 with stunning monochrome portrait
With over hundreds of submissions from across Australia and New Zealand, Brisbane-based artist Julie Fragar won this year’s $100,000 Archibald Prize for her arresting monochromatic portrait of fellow artist and colleague Justene Williams.
Titled Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene), the painting captures Williams as a commanding figure, both maternal and mythic, reflecting the layers of her life and practice.
“The work is a reflection on the experience of making art to deadlines, and the labour and love of being a mother,” says Fragar, according to Art Gallery NSW.
“In the lower left of the painting you can see Justene’s daughter Honore looking up at her mum half in awe and half asking if this is what she will have to manage too,” she adds.
The title ‘Flagship Mother’ Fragar explains, comes from one of Justene’s recent showcases in New Zealand called Making do rhymes with poo.
“It was about the labour of getting by,” says Fragar.
Fragar, who heads the painting department at the Queensland College of Art and Design, worked on the portrait for several months.
Williams, her subject, heads sculpture at the same institution, and is best known for her immersive, multidisciplinary work combining video, performance, photography and installation.
“There is nobody like Justene,” Fragar said. “I feel very fortunate that she allowed me to do this portrait. She thinks big and makes bigger, deploying everything from car bodies to opera singers to make work as fearless and feeling as she is.”
For the first time in Archibald history, women dominate in all three major prizes
Fragar was announced as the winner back in May, marking her first win after four times as an Archibald finalist.
The artist was reportedly overcome with emotion after receiving the call from Maud Page, the recently appointed director of the Art Gallery of NSW. “As a kid from country New South Wales, it’s incredible to win the Archibald–a place that understood the value of portraiture,” she said.
Fragar is the 13th woman to win the Archibald since its inception in 1921, and this year marks another milestone: for the first time, more finalist works by women artists than men appear across all three revered competitions.
Meanwhile, Jude Rae won the $50,000 Wynne Prize for her moody landscape Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal, while Gene A’Hern took home the $40,000 Sulman Prize for his Sky Painting selected from a record 732 entries.
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Behind the scenes of the Archibald Prize’s big reveal
Winners are selected in a tightly managed judging process that begins at 7am on announcement day and concludes within two hours.
While the 2025 Archibald decision hasn’t been discussed publicly, last year’s winner was selected unanimously. “It’s a moment of great excitement,” said NSW Art Gallery senior curator Wayne Tunnicliffe. “To see it installed, to have the public arrive—it’s extraordinary.”
While the winner makes headlines, the full ticketed exhibition, featuring 57 finalist portraits capturing contemporary Aussie life, is where the real story lies.
Over the years, the Archibald has become more than just an art prize, it’s become an inspiring portrait of the nation itself and an institutional fixture in the cultural calendar.
Whether drawn by the art, the atmosphere, or the debate, don’t miss one of Sydney’s most engaging cultural events while it’s still open.
For more information and to see the full list of finalists, visit artgallery.nsw
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes closes August 17 at the Art Gallery of NSW.
