
Julie Fragar wins the 2025 Archibald Prize with a portrait of her friend
Four-time finalist Julie Frager has won the 2025 Archibald Prize with her portrait of her friend and fellow artist Justene Williams.
Ms Frager's oil on canvas painting Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene) captures the varied ways the Brisbane artist, who works with video, photography, sculpture and performance, expresses her craft.
Ms Frager said it shows the "wild way" Williams uses different materials, showing the "multiverse of characters and events that confront the relentless weirdness we go through en route to the other side".
"There is nobody like Justene. She thinks big and makes bigger, deploying everything from car bodies to opera singers to make work as fearless and feeling as she is," Ms Fragar said.
She said the title of the artwork comes from a the title of a recent performance by Ms Williams titled Making do rhymes with poo, about the labour of "getting by" through different roles women need to play.
"In the lower left of the painting, you can see Justene's daughter Honore looking up at her mum half in awe and half asking if this is what she will have to manage too."
Ms Frager takes home a $100,000 prize, along with the much more valuable title of winner.
The 2025 packing room prize was awarded to Abdul Abdullah's oil on linen portrait of Jason Phu titled No mountain high enough.
Mr Abdullah painted his best friend Phu who requested to be surrounded by animals.
The $3000 packing room prize is judged by Art Gallery of NSW staff who receive, unpack and hang the artworks.
The Art Gallery of NSW hosts an exhibition of the works before it tours regional art galleries.
Four-time finalist Julie Frager has won the 2025 Archibald Prize with her portrait of her friend and fellow artist Justene Williams.
Ms Frager's oil on canvas painting Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene) captures the varied ways the Brisbane artist, who works with video, photography, sculpture and performance, expresses her craft.
Ms Frager said it shows the "wild way" Williams uses different materials, showing the "multiverse of characters and events that confront the relentless weirdness we go through en route to the other side".
"There is nobody like Justene. She thinks big and makes bigger, deploying everything from car bodies to opera singers to make work as fearless and feeling as she is," Ms Fragar said.
She said the title of the artwork comes from a the title of a recent performance by Ms Williams titled Making do rhymes with poo, about the labour of "getting by" through different roles women need to play.
"In the lower left of the painting, you can see Justene's daughter Honore looking up at her mum half in awe and half asking if this is what she will have to manage too."
Ms Frager takes home a $100,000 prize, along with the much more valuable title of winner.
The 2025 packing room prize was awarded to Abdul Abdullah's oil on linen portrait of Jason Phu titled No mountain high enough.
Mr Abdullah painted his best friend Phu who requested to be surrounded by animals.
The $3000 packing room prize is judged by Art Gallery of NSW staff who receive, unpack and hang the artworks.
The Art Gallery of NSW hosts an exhibition of the works before it tours regional art galleries.
Four-time finalist Julie Frager has won the 2025 Archibald Prize with her portrait of her friend and fellow artist Justene Williams.
Ms Frager's oil on canvas painting Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene) captures the varied ways the Brisbane artist, who works with video, photography, sculpture and performance, expresses her craft.
Ms Frager said it shows the "wild way" Williams uses different materials, showing the "multiverse of characters and events that confront the relentless weirdness we go through en route to the other side".
"There is nobody like Justene. She thinks big and makes bigger, deploying everything from car bodies to opera singers to make work as fearless and feeling as she is," Ms Fragar said.
She said the title of the artwork comes from a the title of a recent performance by Ms Williams titled Making do rhymes with poo, about the labour of "getting by" through different roles women need to play.
"In the lower left of the painting, you can see Justene's daughter Honore looking up at her mum half in awe and half asking if this is what she will have to manage too."
Ms Frager takes home a $100,000 prize, along with the much more valuable title of winner.
The 2025 packing room prize was awarded to Abdul Abdullah's oil on linen portrait of Jason Phu titled No mountain high enough.
Mr Abdullah painted his best friend Phu who requested to be surrounded by animals.
The $3000 packing room prize is judged by Art Gallery of NSW staff who receive, unpack and hang the artworks.
The Art Gallery of NSW hosts an exhibition of the works before it tours regional art galleries.
Four-time finalist Julie Frager has won the 2025 Archibald Prize with her portrait of her friend and fellow artist Justene Williams.
Ms Frager's oil on canvas painting Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene) captures the varied ways the Brisbane artist, who works with video, photography, sculpture and performance, expresses her craft.
Ms Frager said it shows the "wild way" Williams uses different materials, showing the "multiverse of characters and events that confront the relentless weirdness we go through en route to the other side".
"There is nobody like Justene. She thinks big and makes bigger, deploying everything from car bodies to opera singers to make work as fearless and feeling as she is," Ms Fragar said.
She said the title of the artwork comes from a the title of a recent performance by Ms Williams titled Making do rhymes with poo, about the labour of "getting by" through different roles women need to play.
"In the lower left of the painting, you can see Justene's daughter Honore looking up at her mum half in awe and half asking if this is what she will have to manage too."
Ms Frager takes home a $100,000 prize, along with the much more valuable title of winner.
The 2025 packing room prize was awarded to Abdul Abdullah's oil on linen portrait of Jason Phu titled No mountain high enough.
Mr Abdullah painted his best friend Phu who requested to be surrounded by animals.
The $3000 packing room prize is judged by Art Gallery of NSW staff who receive, unpack and hang the artworks.
The Art Gallery of NSW hosts an exhibition of the works before it tours regional art galleries.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

AU Financial Review
18-05-2025
- AU Financial Review
‘We need the energy': Gen Zs to get a seat on NSW cultural boards
The NSW government will create an extra seat for a director aged between 18 and 28 on each of its cultural institution boards, in an Australian first aimed at attracting future audiences. The appointment of Generation Z directors to the six state-sponsored cultural institutions – Art Gallery Of NSW, Australian Museum, Museums of History, Powerhouse Museum, State Library and Sydney Opera House – was a key plank of the 'creative communities' framework the Minns government produced last year to guide its arts and cultural policies for the next decade.

Sydney Morning Herald
18-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
The radical plan to finally give Gen Z a voice in Sydney's museums and galleries
As a university student, NSW Arts Minister John Graham would often attend theatre performances and realise he was the youngest person there. Even now, as the sector's state leader, Graham still sometimes finds himself 'at the younger end' of audience demographics, which is why NSW will become the first state to legislate to give a voice to Generation Z on the boards of leading cultural institutions. Under draft legislation before parliament, emerging arts leaders aged between 18 and 28 years will be eligible for a guaranteed seat on the board of the Sydney Opera House, Art Gallery of NSW, Powerhouse Museum, Australian Museum, State Library of NSW and Museums of History NSW. The bill was drafted after Graham became impatient for real-time demographic changes on the boards and trusts of the six institutions. If adopted, the laws will apply from October this year. 'There is a range of other views around mentoring and more gentle ways to [achieve those aims] but I don't accept that,' Graham told the Herald. 'I want these representatives on the board as equal participants. There are two goals: to bring on the next-generation audiences, and [to bring on] the next-generation cultural leaders.' The youth seat plan comes amid concern that arts boards across the country are stacked with too many corporate leaders and patrons without real-time arts experience. It follows the Creative Australia board's sacking of its freshly appointed Venice Biennale representative, Khaled Sabsabi, in February. Last year, Sara Mansour from Bankstown Poetry Slam became the Opera House Trust's youngest-ever board member, aged 30. She said it has given her valuable experience in the way cultural organisations deal with complex operational, financial and governance issues. 'Given young people make up over 30 per cent of NSW's population, I think this initiative from the arts minister is brilliant,' she said. 'It not only gives them a seat at the table – it allows them to be heard, and it is also enabling them to gain integral corporate governance and strategic experience that they then can take back to their own community to upskill at a grassroots level. '

The Age
18-05-2025
- The Age
The radical plan to finally give Gen Z a voice in Sydney's museums and galleries
As a university student, NSW Arts Minister John Graham would often attend theatre performances and realise he was the youngest person there. Even now, as the sector's state leader, Graham still sometimes finds himself 'at the younger end' of audience demographics, which is why NSW will become the first state to legislate to give a voice to Generation Z on the boards of leading cultural institutions. Under draft legislation before parliament, emerging arts leaders aged between 18 and 28 years will be eligible for a guaranteed seat on the board of the Sydney Opera House, Art Gallery of NSW, Powerhouse Museum, Australian Museum, State Library of NSW and Museums of History NSW. The bill was drafted after Graham became impatient for real-time demographic changes on the boards and trusts of the six institutions. If adopted, the laws will apply from October this year. 'There is a range of other views around mentoring and more gentle ways to [achieve those aims] but I don't accept that,' Graham told the Herald. 'I want these representatives on the board as equal participants. There are two goals: to bring on the next-generation audiences, and [to bring on] the next-generation cultural leaders.' The youth seat plan comes amid concern that arts boards across the country are stacked with too many corporate leaders and patrons without real-time arts experience. It follows the Creative Australia board's sacking of its freshly appointed Venice Biennale representative, Khaled Sabsabi, in February. Last year, Sara Mansour from Bankstown Poetry Slam became the Opera House Trust's youngest-ever board member, aged 30. She said it has given her valuable experience in the way cultural organisations deal with complex operational, financial and governance issues. 'Given young people make up over 30 per cent of NSW's population, I think this initiative from the arts minister is brilliant,' she said. 'It not only gives them a seat at the table – it allows them to be heard, and it is also enabling them to gain integral corporate governance and strategic experience that they then can take back to their own community to upskill at a grassroots level. '