A portrait of the artist Jason Phu by Abdul Abdullah has won the $3,000 packing room prize at the annual Archibald prize.
Phu, who is also a finalist this year with his portrait of the actor Hugo Weaving, is depicted sitting astride a horse in Abdullah’s winning painting, titled No mountain high enough. The two artists are “best friends”, Abdullah told Guardian Australia on Thursday, with Phu having been the best man at his wedding.
“I’ve painted him as I see him – as a ceaseless adventurer who at any time is involved in a dozen conversations on a dozen different platforms, bringing his unique perspective to one flummoxed friend or another,” he said in his statement accepting the award.
Artists make good subjects, he told Guardian Australia: “They’re easy game. They know how to pose. They understand the process. You can catch them anytime in the day.”
Now in its 34th year, the packing room prize is judged by the Art Gallery of New South Wales employees charged with receiving and handling this year’s Archibald entries.
Abdullah described the packing room category as “the Archibald’s community prize”. “It’s also kinda like an artist’s pick and I’m extra happy about that,” he added.
This year’s overall winner of the Archibald prize, Australia’s most prestigious art award, will be announced on 9 May.
Celebrity sitters are a minority among the 57 Archibald nominees this year; instead, artists have dominated this year. A dozen of the finalists are self-portraits, while 22 are portraits of another artist. Just over a third of the 2025 nominees are first-time finalists.
The actor Nicole Kidman and her sister, Antonia, the actor Miranda Otto and the Boy Swallows Universe breakout star Felix Cameron are there, as is the radio presenter Jackie O, the singer Katie Noonan, the musician William Barton, the activist Grace Tame, the comedian Aaron Chen, Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis and the author Kathy Lette.
Despite it being just days before a federal election – or maybe because of it – politicians barely got a look in this year. The only nod to civic duty appears to be a local government Sydney councillor, Yvonne Weldon, in Luke Cornish and Christophe Domergue’s painting Blood, sweat and tears.
On Thursday Abdullah criticised Creative Australia’s decision to dump the artist Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s representative at the 2026 Venice Biennale. “I think it’s an atrocious decision by the board of Creative Australia and the CEO, and I think it’s going to reflect poorly on Australia’s creative choices, especially coming after the Golden Lion that Archie Moore won,” he told Guardian Australia. “We’ve come from such highs to such lows, and it’s so, so disappointing.”
He added that he hoped that the arts minister, Tony Burke, would intervene after the federal election. Asked why there were so few politicians among the sitters this year, Abdullah replied: “Painting politicians is just bad luck.”
The artist Natasha Walsh is the subject of Jonathan Dalton’s finalist work, and has also made the cut with her portrait of the artist Atong Atem. The printmaker Cressida Campbell has been painted by Natasha Bieniek, the painter Ken Done by Fiona Lowry, and the artist Wendy Sharpe by Lucila Zentner.
The previous Archibald winner Vincent Namatjira has painted himself this year, in his characteristically irreverent way that mining magnates do not seem to appreciate. A very ill-looking Chris O’Doherty, widely known as Reg Mombassa, has painted himself in hospital with a nose tube. And Mathew Calandra reimagines himself as Nightmare on Elm Street’s villain, Freddy Krueger, Yvette Coppersmith has painted herself with a couple of cats and Vipoo Srivilasa has done the same – with a lot more cats.
On Thursday the finalists were revealed across all three prizes – the $100,000 Archibald for portraiture, the $50,000 Wynne for landscape and sculpture, and the $40,000 Sulman for genre and mural painting.
All three exhibitions will go on public display at the AGNSW from 10 May until 17 August.
The Archibald finalists will then head to Geelong, Gosford, Muswellbrook, Mudgee, Shoalhaven and Coffs Harbour later this year and in 2026.
