Archibald ditches the selfie and returns to form: Which one is your winner?

The grand old dame of Australian art, the Archibald Prize, turns 105 this year but, even at that advanced age, this year’s finalists prove there’s life in the old girl yet.

When the doors to the nation’s most anticipated annual art exhibition open on May 9, visitors to the Art Gallery of NSW will discover a cogent and accomplished show in genuine conversation with contemporary Australian culture and concerns.

It’s a soaring improvement on the kaleidoscopic chaos that came at us in 2025.

Sydneysider Morgan Stokes, making his Archibald Prize debut, has produced a breathtaking and barely discernible close-up of fellow artist and former Archibald winner Yvette Coppersmith that appears to shimmer before your eyes.

Writer and book illustrator Gabrielle Wang comes across as warm and assured in Betina Fauvel-Ogden’s rather golden-hued composition, and five years after his death, Nicholas Mourzakis has breathed life into neurologist Jack Wodak.

Wodak sat for Mourzakis in 2019, but it wasn’t until this year the Greek-born Melburnian completed his study of a serious and intense medic, which was submitted with his family’s consent.

Finalists are selected each year from an open call for submissions from anyone prepared to pay the $50 entry fee and deliver their work to the gallery, a week or so before March 27.

Lawyer Michael Rose is president of trustees, responsible for corralling AGNSW’s 10 other trustees, including artists Caroline Rothwell and Tony Albert, to whittle down the 1034 entrants into the final 59.

This beguiling annual sociological experiment tends to result in a show that reflects back to ourselves, in a way that challenges art world elitism and emboldens audiences to engage robustly with art.

So, how are we looking?

From a sector historically dominated by male painters and sitters, this year, gender parity is again on show in front of, and behind, the canvas. Corporate Australia could take note.

From an overwhelm last year of so many naive, queer, neurodivergent, and overtly cultural artworks, this year’s exhibition is just as diverse, but has been curated with considerably more sensitivity by senior curator Beatrice Gralton in her second year.

US-educated Sydney artist Chris Watts’s stunning, bold, abstract colour block portrait in profile of bisexual former AFL player Mitch Brown, is a case in point.

Thom Roberts’s riff on Beatle George Harrison reveals an artist now hitting his stride.

Selfie culture peaked in 2018 with 21 self-portraits but has happily ebbed to just five this year. The most impressive is Natasha Walsh Klein’s oil on copper that reveals her reflected in a window looking on to a garden. The copper plate is suspended a white frame behind glass.

Brisbane artist Michael Zavros returns to the Archibald with a compelling likeness of Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

Painted in Zavros’ signature photo-real style, the portrait is an excellent likeness that additionally hints at being a likeness of Zavros himself.

By blending himself into his sitter, the artist revisits the theme of narcissism he has explored throughout his career.

A sign of the times, this year’s exhibition is considerably more political than it has been in years, and yet the trend to ignore elected politicians continues.

In 2026, we are finding powerful cultural leadership beyond the political class: a rare figure of authority is Governor General Sam Mostyn, rendered by James Powditch in his instantly recognisable graphic style.

More on-trend is Desiree Crossing’s powerful portrait of Palestinian Australian doctor Mohammed Mustafa, portrayed with heavy limbs and huge hands hinting at the hard road ahead to rebuild his birthplace.

The presence of these substantive newsmakers – such as on-off-on again Venice artist Khaled Sabsabi, Wayside Chapel priest Jon Owen, Plate it Forward hospitality entrepreneur Shaun Christie-David and Bondi hero Ahmed al Ahmed – add heft to an exhibition that, in recent years, had drifted towards the shallow and trite.

Beloved Australian musicians, actors, artists and, in a welcome return, a few authors, are well represented.

Fashion designers are strutting their stuff too, with Lesleigh Jermanus painted by Daniel Kim surrounded by a lacey frame and an accomplished portrait of Anna Plunkett by Techa Noble.

Sydney artist Caroline Zilinsky has bounced back from a previous Archibald turn with The Block finalists Mitch Edwards and Mark McKie, with a stylised portrayal of trailblazing fashion entrepreneur sisters Nicky and Simone Zimmermann.

At the other end of the fashion spectrum is influencer-turned-tank top peddler and TikTok business winner Sophia Begg, whose miniature portrait by Andy Collis is cleverly rendered on a replica phone screen.

Something for everyone, then, this year.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.