Australia is a nation that thrives on competition. We celebrate our champions with awards and accolades from the sporting stadium to the big screen. No field is immune from our desire for excellence, least of all the arts, where most galleries, big or small, draw attention to themselves and their program through competitive annual art prizes. But what happens when creativity and competition meet?
In 2025 artistic practice was given the reality show treatment with the release of ABC’s Portrait Artist of the Year, a reality series that brought portraiture into living rooms across the country. From a field of 54 contestants, the winner earned the rare opportunity to have their work displayed on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery.
This year’s Annual Lecture will be presented by academic, author, art historian and judge of Portrait Artist of the Year, Associate Professor Robert Wellington. Robert will explore our fascination with art as competition – the merits and the limitations. He will also take us inside the unique world where, for the first time in Australia, reality TV and portraiture collided.
The evening will begin at 6:00pm with a welcome drink, with formal proceedings commencing at 6:30pm.
The lecture will be live captioned and livestreamed with Auslan interpretation. If you can’t join us in person, tune in from the comfort of your own home with a Virtual Connection ticket.
Image: Associate Professor Robert Wellington, 2026
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