Artist Julie Fragar wins Archibald Prize with portrait of best friend
'Justene is incredible. She has an amazing way with materials where she can grab anything and I feel fortunate that she allowed me to do this portrait. There is nobody like her,' Fragar said on Friday after being named the winner.
'The work is a reflection on the experience of making art to deadlines and the labour and love of being a mother.'
Fragar's winning portrait, Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene), was sketched in one sitting, then put together over three months, with the help of photographs, in her Brisbane studio. Williams' daughter is a tiny figure in the background standing atop a sculptured rock tower.
Fragar cried happy tears on being told by Art Gallery of NSW director Maud Page of her win.
Looking back on her younger self, Fragar said, her win seemed unimaginable.
'My first goal was to be included in Art Express [exhibition] and I remember walking through the art gallery and saying, 'Oh goodness, imagine if I could be at the entrance to Art Express',' she said.
On the $100,000 prizemoney, Fragar said she intended to 'sit there and look at it in disbelief and then buy an easel I haven't made myself'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Advertiser
a day ago
- The Advertiser
Sydney vs Melbourne: Which Australian art city deserves your vote?
A Yayoi Kusama sculture at the Art Gallery of NSW. By Mal Chenu and Amy Cooper Sydney and Melbourne love a rivalry. Coffee, footy, laneways, beaches - you name it, they'll turn it into a competition. Subscribe now for unlimited access. or signup to continue reading All articles from our website The digital version of Today's Paper All other in your area Now two of our travel writers are stepping into the cultural boxing ring, each ready to throw a few punches for their city's pride. In the blue corner: Sydney's dazzling Art Gallery of NSW, all harbour sparkle and Archibald glamour. In the black-and-white corner: Melbourne's NGV, with more masterpieces than you can count and a beret-wearing fan club to match. Which one wins your vote? Art should be fun. It shouldn't be like my first school trip to a gallery, filled with 2D scowling men pairing armour with tights, and ended abruptly by one kid's decision to break the tedium by writing "exit" on a nude statue's butt (although you could argue that this, too, was art). Art is about escapism and imagination, freedom and hope, and galleries should make your heart soar. Which brings me to my artistic difference with Mal, my fellow columnist below. While Melbourne's NGV boasts Australia's biggest art collection, its main HQ is a bleak grey slab that gives the sense you might never escape, and nobody will hear you scream. The Here Comes Everybody sculpture at the Art Gallery of NSW. Picture supplied (What is it about Melbourne and first impressions? Luna Park's only job is to be jolly, but it has a nightmarish demented ghoul face for an entrance.) By contrast, Art Gallery of NSW has joy built into its beautiful bones. Light floods the pavilions and terraces of the award-winning 2022 Naala Badu ("seeing waters") building and gilds the gracious Romanesque pink columns on the 19th-century original wing. A technicolour Yayoi Kusama flower sculpture greets you outside, along with Francis Upritchard's Here Comes Everybody - a gathering of lanky bronze playmates frolicking on the forecourt. The message is unmistakable: good times await. And well they might, because you're in a prime harbourside playground; emerald parkland on one side, glittering water on the other - a place for picnics and party boats. Basically, standard Sydney - dazzling before you even reach the art. When you do, it's formidable; about 36,000 works including one of Australia's broadest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collections, historic European greats from Rubens to Rodin, Asian treasures - and the biggest ticket in Australian art: the annual Archibald Prize. Fans flock to see it, because even Picasso (and AGNSW has 15) can't please a crowd like portraits of Hugo Weaving cuddling a cat or Adam Goodes in his Swannies kit. There's star power on the menu, too, because Sydney knows every party needs good food; flagship restaurants by celeb chefs Matt Moran, Sushil Aryal and Ngemba Weilwan woman Sharon Winsor. Five eateries in all - more than many a five-star hotel. When the stunning $344 million Naala Badu opened in 2022, the gallery's director declared it "could only be in Sydney". He meant the building's sundrenched coastal beauty. But it's deeper than that. AGNSW is Sydney's exuberant spirit personified - the antidote to stuffy and musty, and filled with inviting, inclusive innovations like Australia's first Children's Art Library, where noise and creativity are encouraged, and Art After Hours on Wednesdays, when you can stay until 10pm for activities from dance classes to meditation, films and tours - all with a pop-up bar. Melbourne's gallery may have amassed more masterpieces, but Sydney's has massively mastered the art of fun. Here Comes Everybody is spot on. As someone who won a participation certificate for finger painting at kindy, I am well qualified to look at the big picture and frame an argument in favour of the National Gallery of Victoria, known simply to its many admirers as "the NGV". Having a well-accepted acronym is an important part of gallery cred, as MoMA in New York and MONA in Hobart can attest. National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. Picture supplied Comprised of two buildings - NGV International on St Kilda Road and the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia in Federation Square - this is Australia's oldest and most visited gallery. Founded in 1861, the NGV holds the most significant collection of art in Australia, with a treasure trove of more than 76,000 works. NGV International welcomes visitors with a giant water wall and fountains at the entrance, before opening into a cavernous interior with an enormous stained-glass ceiling. Similarly, the Federation Square Atrium leads to the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, where thousands of years of Indigenous virtuosity and a couple of hundred years of colonial flair come together to paint a history of the wide brown land. Indigenous highlights include Tommy McRae's Corroboree and the Wurrdha Marra (Many Mobs) collection, plus possum skin cloaks and ochre paintings from the Dreaming. Colonial masterpieces feature Tom Roberts' Shearing the Rams and Frederick McCubbin's The Pioneer. From beyond these shores, Giambattista Tiepolo's The Banquet of Cleopatra and Picasso's Weeping Woman lead a star-studded international line-up. The NGV boasts a truly ecumenical and worldly collection. Sydney vs Melbourne: Which Australian art city deserves your vote? Location, location is usually more a Sydney thing, but the NGV venues are slap bang in the middle of the Melbourne Arts Precinct, nestled among cafes where ethically sourced coffee is served with tasting notes printed on recycled bark. The Art Gallery of NSW sits atop The Domain in Sydney, where a sweaty uphill climb culminates in stepping over bin chicken droppings at the entrance. We learned this week that the Art Gallery of NSW is cutting jobs and slashing its budget, which is bad news for Sydney and lousy timing for Amy. Conversely, the NGV is getting bigger and better. In 2028, The Fox: NGV Contemporary will be Australia's largest contemporary art gallery when it opens at Southbank. That is, unless it goes the way of the Commonwealth Games and the state government pays $600 million to move it to Glasgow at the last minute. Amy is painting herself into a corner, brushing over the fact that Melbourne is the undisputed cultural capital of the nation. I mean, if half your patrons aren't wearing black berets over purple hair and wearing a Collingwood guernsey, can you even call yourself an Aussie art gallery?
ABC News
01-08-2025
- ABC News
Archibald Prize People's Choice Award won by Loribelle Spirovski
4 time Archibald finalist Loribelle Spirovski has been announced as the winner of the 2025 People's Choice Prize for her portrait of didgeridoo virtuoso player, William Barton. The portrait was inspired by William's composition Birdsong at Dusk, and in a radical departure for Loribelle it was painted entirely with her fingers. The Archibald prize is Australia's most prestigious portraiture competition held every year at the Art Gallery of NSW and this painting was the clear favourite of the 40, 842 visitors to the Archibald who lodged a vote this year. Guest: Loribelle Spirovski, Archibald Prize People's Choice Award 2025 winner Producer: David Cook
Sydney Morning Herald
31-07-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
He reinvented the Art Gallery of NSW. This is where Michael Brand is headed next
After a 13-year stint as director at the Art Gallery of NSW, Michael Brand is done, handing over the reins to his former deputy Maud Page. And it seems like Brand is also done with Sydney – for now anyway. The former director is packing up and relocating north to Brisbane, where he will be based for the foreseeable future. No new job yet – after more than a decade in one of the biggest roles in the Australian cultural sector, Brand needs a breather. But we hear he is set to do a bit of casual work for the Bhutanese royal family, who are hoping to establish a new museum in the picturesque, pint-sized Himalayan nation. As far as cultural icons go, Brisbane is better known for the likes of Lang Park and the XXXX brewery on the banks of the Brown Snake at Milton. Jokes aside, the Queensland capital is working hard to build its own cultural capital in its quest to become a proper global city by the time the Olympics rolls around in 2032. It now even has a few restaurants nice enough for Brand's high-end tastes. Could Brand be a part of that transformation? Watch this space. Loading Meet the press With 94 seats in the House of Representatives, you'd think the Albanese government might be feeling bold. Bold enough to take on those chumps in the Canberra press gallery, at least. But the party's 24 new MPs are still feeling a little timid about starting out at big school. On Wednesday night, the National Press Club hosted a convivial, off-record drinks for new MPs to schmooze with the press gallery.
