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Arts prize winners and finalists: 29 July to 4 August 2025

William Barton portrait awarded Archibald People's Choice, memoir of war wins National Biography Award. This week's prize winners and finalists.

4 Aug 2025 9:00

Celina Lei

The artist Loribelle Spirovski (a young woman with brown hair in an up do smiling) with her hand on the shoulder of her sitter, William Barton (a middle-aged Aboriginal man holding a didgeridoo) in front of a large portrait painting of Barton sitting at in a room with a similar position.

Performing Arts

Archibald Prize 2025 ANZ People’s Choice award winner Loribelle Spirovski and sitter William Barton with winning work ‘Finger painting of William Barton’ at the Archibald Prize 2025 ANZ People’s Choice award winner announcement, Art Gallery of New South Wales, artwork © the artist. Photo: © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio.

Four-time Archibald Prize finalist Loribelle Spirovski has won the Archibald Prize 2025 ANZ People’s Choice award for her portrait of William Barton, a virtuoso of the yidaki, also known as the didgeridoo. The portrait was made entirely using a finger-painting technique. Finger painting of William Barton is a tribute to Barton, a Kalkadunga man and internationally acclaimed composer, who has transformed perceptions of the yidaki through his pioneering work in classical and contemporary music.

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Celina Lei

Celina Lei is ArtsHub's former Content Manager. She has previously worked across global art hubs in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York in both the commercial art sector and art criticism. She took part in drafting NAVA’s revised Code of Practice - Art Fairs, and was the project manager of ArtsHub’s diverse writers initiative, Amplify Collective. Celina is based in Naarm/Melbourne. Instagram: @lleizy_