The face that stops the nation has landed. This morning, the Art Gallery of New South Wales announced Brisbane-based artist Julie Fragar as the winner of the 2025 Archibald Prize, for her portrait of fellow Brissy artist and colleague Justene Williams. The highly detailed black and white painting, titled ‘Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene)’, depicts Williams as an “active master of a multiverse of characters and events”.
Fragar is a four-time Archibald Prize finalist, and this is the first time she has won the $100,000 prize. The artist broke into tears when the Art Gallery of NSW’s recently appointed director, Maud Page, phoned this morning to deliver the news that her work had been selected as the winner from the 57 finalist works.
This is the 15th time in Archie history that the prize has been awarded to a woman, and Fragar is the 13th woman to win since its inception in 1921. Fragar and Williams work together at the Queensland College of Art and Design, where Fragar is the head of painting and Williams is the head of sculpture.
Responding to the win, Fragar said: “You work your whole career imagining this might happen one day. Thinking back to myself as a 17-year-old showing up at the Sydney College of the Arts – a kid from country New South Wales – it’s incredible to think I have won the Archibald Prize. Portrait painting wasn’t taken as seriously in the 1990s as it is today. I have always regarded the Archibald Prize as a place that understood the value of portraiture.”
The winning painting depicts its subject suspended mid-air in a sort of galactic landscape, floating above an assortment of distorted mannequins and other objects. The words ‘Flagship Mother’ in the title come from Justene’s recent endurance performance in New Zealand titled ‘Making do rhymes with poo’, which was about the labour of “getting by”.
Speaking of her sitter, Fragar said: “Justene is incredible. I feel very fortunate that she allowed me to do this portrait. There is nobody like her. The work is a reflection on the experience of making art to deadlines, and the labour and love of being a mother."
It’s a big year for artists finding their muse in fellow artists, it would appear. Today’s news follows last week’s announcement of the winner of the much-loved Packing Room Prize, which went to Abdul Abdullah for his painting of fellow artist Jason Phu (read more about that over here).
The Gallery also today announced the winners of the Archibald’s sibling exhibitions, the Wynne and Sulman Prizes, today. Sydney artist Jude Rae took out the Wynne Prize 2025 and $50,000 for her painting ‘Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal’, depicting an immense sky underlaid with the rust reds of impending sunrise. Meanwhile, Gene A’Hern has won the Sir John Sulman Prize 2025 and $40,000 for his work ‘Sky painting’, a bold, vibrant and gestural work that draws on his relationship to the Blue Mountains where he lives and works.
Want to take a look at all the finalists for yourself? They’re all on display in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2025 exhibition, which opens at the Art Gallery from tomorrow (Saturday, May 10) and will exhibit through to Sunday, August 17. Find out more over here.
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