It’s 3.45pm and the clock is counting down on the final entry day of this year’s Archibald, Sulman and Wynne prizes.
Two packing room assistants stand at either end of the steel roller door, watching for latecomers. The car park is nearly empty.
More than 570 entries flooded into the Art Gallery of NSW on Friday, the final day of entries for the contemporary art prizes, of which the Archibald is the most famous. There are, however, always a few artists who have left delivery to the last minute – underestimating the effort to bring together a canvas for public showing, the time taken to pack and drive it from studio to gallery in Friday afternoon peak hour, or who simply are caught up in some misadventure.
One of the lucky last was first-time Wynne Prize entrant Matthew Cook, who set off for the gallery from Murwillumbah on the NSW Far North Coast at 2am. He arrives sleep-deprived with more than an hour to spare, only to discover that wind had played havoc with his canvas on the eight-hour drive.
“I haven’t slept really, and I got here and the wind’s been so strong today that it’s blown under the canvas, and it has lifted,” he says. “I made a good job of making it perfect, and now I have to undo it.”
He removes the staples while his monumental landscape of the Warrumbungles lies on the car roof racks, then re-staples it in the docks as it leans on the trolley for storing and judging.
Three artists have rung in to alert packing room staff they are running late. Cook is still stapling when the docks officially close at 4:37pm, just after artist Alice Xu prises her entry from behind the back seat of an Uber. The driver takes a picture of his passenger and her work in case it is hung. Cook intends to turn around and drive back to Murwillumbah in the rain. Where he will stop or sleep, he doesn’t know.
Earlier, ceramicist Casey Chen, a finalist in the 2025 Wynne Prize, sits cross-legged on a wooden pallet on the dock floor nursing a plum vase still warm from the kiln. He is painting the final touches, applying glue to its base to attach gold leaf.
“It’s funny. I really worked my butt off to avoid being stuck in this predicament again,” says Chen. “It just takes longer than I always estimate.”
Alexis Wildman, the gallery’s senior installation technician, said there had been a noticeable increase in the number of sculptures entered in the Wynne Prize and mixed media in all three prizes. “We’ve seen a lot of politicians, drag queens, TV personalities or influencers, and plenty of nudes, which is always fun.”
Artist Camellia Morris was hung as a finalist for the Archibald in 2024 for a portrait of Blue Wiggle Anthony Field. This year, she walked in with a four-panel portrait of the Yellow and Red Wiggles, Greg Page and Murray Cook. Studio A, dedicated to empowering artists with disabilities, dropped off seven entries, including five for the Archibald, after waiting for Meagan Pelham to perfect her portrait of journalist and television presenter Jessica Rowe.
This year’s subjects include Ahmed al Ahmed, the man who disarmed one of the shooters during the Bondi terror attack. He was painted by Sydney artist Julia Dover. Hayden Bone painted his brother Cameron McEvoy, officially the fastest swimmer in history over 50 metres.
“Cameron’s journey back to Olympic gold wasn’t just about speed in the water; it was reinvention, discipline, and a relentless pursuit,” Bone posted on social media. “A privilege to translate that journey onto canvas.”
Jaq Grantford followed up last year’s portrait of sisters Antonia and Nicole Kidman with a painting of composer Elena Kats-Chernin. Emergency doctor Mohammed Mustafa, who made two missions to Gaza hospitals during the recent war, sat for Luke Cornish.
Caroline Zilinsky painted Nicky and Simone Zimmermann, founders of the Zimmermann fashion label, and five-time Archibald finalist Nick Stathopoulos painted Margaret Fink, the legendary film producer now in her 90s. Stathopoulos’ entry of Sudanese refugee lawyer Deng Adut was voted People’s Choice in 2016.
This year’s finalists will be announced on April 30, and the winners on May 8.
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