The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes are always a highlight on the art calendar, opening the Gallery of NSW up to new audiences and opening up opportunities for new artists. Indeed, for this year’s Sulman and Wynne Prizes, 60% of finalists for both were first-time inclusions. It is also a first for curator Beatrice Gralton, who has been charged with delivering the finalist exhibition this year.
Generally, the suite of prizes has a very different feel this year. There is a lot of sculpture included – more than recent years – and artists have really extended themselves and pushed their medium into new techniques and ideas, offering a level of surprise.
ArtsHub caught up with Gralton to step through her first take on the iconic, crowd-drawing spectacular.
AH: What was the experience like, curating your first Archibald (Archi)?
BG: A lot of fun, but you really have to completely commit to it, and enjoy it.
It is hard to focus because the works are disparate, and how do you stitch it together?
Ultimately, the art of all prizes is about stories and storytelling – why these particular people have captured the imagination of artists at the time, and what the artists are able to tell us about them. So, hanging the show you find the sight lines that are important. And then, you try and find stories from that and bring out all the individual stories that these artists want to tell, or the sitters need to tell.
The Wynne is a little bit different. You’ve got a bit more opportunity to play with the aesthetics. And the Sulman is artist-driven, and that’s a lot of fun. We worked with Elizabeth Pulie this year – she is so conceptually rigorous, but also had a very clear sense of what she wanted to do, led by her interest in painting and materiality. She had 732 works, and she chose 30. That’s quite tough, I think her teaching expertise helped.
What percentage were first-time entrants?
60% of the Wynne, 60% of the Sulman are first-time finalists. I think Elizabeth was really interested in having work by people that she may not have known – and that we certainly may not know, and what it is that they may be trying to do through painting. There are a lot of found objects in there also, reclaimed objects. I think it’s just really distilled something, which is about a new generation coming through. I feel excited by having that experience working with this.
There’s a lot of sculpture included this year.
We had over 100 entries this year in sculpture. I think about 15 or so made it over, and a lot of them were very good quality. I think potentially having Caroline Rothwell on the Board of Trustees, who is a sculptor, has given artists a confidence to put their work forward. It was great, actually, to see that much work came through, and I think there are lots of conversations going on between the sculpture works, in terms of storytelling and mythology, and also that connection between land and body that we see then in the landscape works.
I thought they had to be a figurative sculpture?
With figurative it can extend as far as ‘representational’ can be. You could be referring to a microorganism, for example, or Ebony Russell is referring to an ancient Greek figure. I think our elasticity around the definition of figurative has changed a lot over the years. So it doesn’t necessarily need to be representational. It can be quite abstracted.
I think we have to respond to how the how artists are working as well. If you set the parameters of the prize in 1899, or 1921 for the Wynne and 1936 for the Sulman, the way artists practise, and the way artists are taught, has really changed.
What about gender ratio this year?
For the first time ever, there are more women practitioners represented than men in all three prizes. And what’s fascinating about that, is that it wasn’t a conscious action. I was really buoyed by that, given the representation of women going through art school and longevity of practice.
It has a really different feel – like a number of the artists are actually pushing themselves and working differently, whether regarding scale or surface quality or material use. Like Gemma Smith, for example. It actually feels as if they have decided to use this as a platform to shape shift their practice.
That’s a really good point. Gemma made that work after she had done a residency in New York State, and she talks about sort of collaging with the canvas as if it was paint, and what a challenge it was.
And there are a few artists, like [Yuriyal] Eric Bridgeman, who is not somebody who’s worked in that space before, but he was really excited to go into this area of much more representational work.
And Yvette Coppersmith, too – her surfaces are so refined, and there’s a big shift there.
Both Mitch Cairns and Yvette Coppersmith’s work is also much tonally darker than it’s been in a while. I think there is also a lot of friendship and a lot of humour this year. And there’s a kind of resonance of activism and politics, but not in a didactic way. And there’s a sense of portraiture that is not just about big heads or big faces; it’s much more contextual this year.
And celebrity sitters?
We’ve got Hugo Weaving, Nicole Kidman, Miranda Otto, Kathy Lette. Two Australians of the Year – Grace Tame and Neale Daniher – comedian Aaron Chen and Katie Noonan.
What’s the process of curating – how did you start to get your head around these prizes, because they are such weighty things and carry so much history and public expectation?
They’re not like curating any other show, because we’re given the work already, and have to try and create a narrative – to open it up for people to have an experience. I think that’s a really different way of thinking.
When you come from a more art history background, or an artist-led background to put on shows, it’s a real shift, and it’s about relaxing a little bit and not being quite as precious as one might normally be, and really respecting the audience. It’s such an important aspect of this institution – and you need to understand that.
Did you put your hand up to do this?
No, but I was really stoked to be asked… I had to shadow Wayne [Tunnicliffe] over the judging last year. Anne [Ryan, former prize curator] was such good counsel through this – you know, we shared an office for a long time. And she was always willing to be fresh eyes for me. I’ve been down in that gallery for a month, with my computer set up there. She’d just come down and check on me. “You’re still here. You haven’t, like, rolled your ankle? What do I need to bring you?”
What does it mean to artists to be included?
Abdul Abdullah was saying the other day that the first time he ever came to the Art Gallery of New South Wales was as a young Archi finalist, just after graduating from art school. To me, that’s really important. And he met all of these colleagues and people that he’s now good friends with. It is competitive.
Richard Lewis’ picture is, I think, very tongue in cheek, and very much about the competition. It’s hard to survive and be an artist, and Richard’s picture is saying ‘you’re only as good as your last painting’. It speaks to his love of sport, of course, but he’s also taking off his glasses, and he’s having a good hard look at himself, and that is reflected in the scale.
Yes, we’re used to smaller works from him.
To exist as an artist in this country, or in any space, is challenging, and he’s playing with that idea.
What’s the attraction to the Archi in your view?
I was thinking to myself, why is this something that people want to look at? Why are we obsessed with paid portraiture? It’s always different, but we’re drawn back to those stories, I think it’s because we have lots of complexity in understanding our own cultural identity.
But, as the arts … become more and more open, more diverse, and we have encounters with works of art, it’s [as if] we meet these people that maybe we’ve never had a chance to meet before in our lives. And that’s fun.
To view the 2025 Finalists of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes.
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize finalist exhibition will be presented at the Art Gallery of NSW, Naala Nura building, from 10 May – 17 August. It is a ticketed exhibition.
The winners will be announced on Friday 9 May 2025.
