The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919. It is administered by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and awarded for "the best portrait, preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics, painted by an artist resident in Australia during the twelve months preceding the date fixed by the trustees for sending in the pictures". The Archibald Prize has been awarded annually since 1921 and since July 2015 the prize has been AU$100,000.
Margaret Hannah Olley was an Australian painter. She held over ninety solo exhibitions during her lifetime.
John Henry Olsen AO OBE was an Australian artist and winner of the 2005 Archibald Prize. Olsen's primary subject of work was landscape.
Wendy Sharpe is an Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney and Paris. She has held over 70 solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, been awarded many national awards and artist residencies for her work, and was an official Australian War Artist to East Timor in 1999–2000.
Sir John Campbell Longstaff was an Australian painter, war artist and a five-time winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture. Longstaff was one of the most prolific portraitists of the Edwardian period, painting many high society figures in both Australia and Britain.
Adam Frederick Cullen was an Australian artist, most known for winning the Archibald Prize in 2000 with a portrait of actor David Wenham. He was also known for his controversial subjects and his distinctive style, sometimes referred to as "grunge".
Nora Heysen, was an Australian artist, the first woman to win the prestigious Archibald Prize in 1938 for portraiture and the first Australian woman appointed as an official war artist.
Francis Giacco is an Australian artist who won the Archibald Prize in 1994 with Homage to John Reichard. Giacco has a Bachelor of Architecture from the UNSW and is a longtime teacher at the Julian Ashton Art School, The Rocks, Sydney. His classes are characterized by a structured and logical approach to the tradition of classical drawing and painting techniques.
Janet Dawson MBE is an Australian artist who was a pioneer of abstract painting in Australia in the 1960s, having been introduced to abstraction during studies in England while she lived in Europe 1957–1960 She was also an accomplished lithographic printer of her own works as well as those of other renowned Australian artists, a theatre-set and furniture designer. She studied in England and Italy on scholarships before returning to Australia in 1960. She won the Art Gallery of New South Wales Archibald Prize in 1973 with the portrait of her husband, Michael Boddy Reading. She has exhibited across Australia and overseas, and her work is held in major Australian and English collections. In 1977 she was awarded an MBE for services to art.
Jenny Sages is an Archibald Prize People's Choice Award winning Australian artist. She is known for her abstract landscape paintings and portraits. She arrived in Australia in 1948. After being expelled from East Sydney Technical College, Jenny moved to New York to study at Franklin School of Art. She was a freelance writer and illustrator for Vogue Australia until the 1980s before starting full-time painting in 1985 at the age of 52. Her career transformation was greatly influenced by a trip to Kimberley, Western Australia, where she felt enchanted by the local indigenous culture. Her unique style is created using wax and pigments and the minimal use of brushes.
Louise Hearman is an Australian artist from Melbourne who has been painting and drawing from a very young age. She mostly paints with oil on masonite, though she does work with pastel and charcoal from time to time.
Del Kathryn Barton is an Australian artist who began drawing at a young age, and studied at UNSW Art & Design at the University of New South Wales. She soon became known for her psychedelic fantasy works which she has shown in solo and group exhibitions across Australia and overseas. In 2008 and 2013 she won the Archibald Prizes for portraiture presented by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 2015 her animated film Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose won the Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film.
Lucy Culliton is an Australian artist, based in Hartley. She is known for her paintings of landscapes and still life.
Kerrie Lester was an Australian artist who was a frequent finalist in the Archibald Prize for portraiture, although she never won the main prize.
Amalie Sara Colquhoun was an Australian landscape and portrait painter who is represented in national and state galleries. In addition to painting landscapes, portraits and still lifes, Colquhoun designed and supervised the construction of stained glass windows for three of Ballarat's churches, St Andrew's Kirk, Lydiard Street Uniting Church and Mount Pleasant Methodist Church. She studied in both Melbourne and Sydney, exhibited in England and Australia and taught in the school she started with her husband in Melbourne.
Vincent Namatjira is an Aboriginal Australian artist living in Indulkana, in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara in South Australia. He has won many art awards, and after being nominated for the Archibald Prize several times, he became the first Aboriginal person to win it in 2020. He is the great-grandson of the Arrente watercolour artist Albert Namatjira.
Sally Robinson is an English-born Australian artist. She has had a long career as a portrait artist and designer, painter and printmaker, teacher and lecturer. Her work is represented in private and public collections around Australia.
Loribelle Spirovski is a visual artist who was born in Manila, Philippines and lives in Sydney, Australia. She is known for her portrait paintings, which often incorporate elements of surrealism and photorealism. She graduated from the University of New South Wales in 2012 with a Bachelor of Art Education, and has exhibited in Australia, Europe, the UK and the United States. She is married to the Australian classical pianist Simon Tedeschi.
Jude Rae is an Australian artist. She has exhibited, predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, since the 1980s, and is famous for her still life paintings, large scale interiors, and portraits.
