The Archibald is Australia’s most prestigious and oldest portraiture prize. In 2021, the centenary, Victoria Atkinson and Thom Roberts were two of 52 finalists, selected from over 900 entries.
Victoria Atkinson painted Federal Member for North Sydney, Trent Zimmerman, the first openly gay member of the House of Representatives. Inspired by their shared queer identity, she painted him with her signature vivid palette and titled the work Trent mango tree all the colours of the rainbow Trent. “When Trent came into Studio A, I did my portrait,” says Victoria. “I did sketches first. I maybe did four sketches in pencil on paper”. She added a mango tree to add something “special” for Zimmerman, and painted a kennel “for Trent’s dog Simba to sleep in.”
Thom Roberts chose to paint his “good friend”, Chair of Studio A and founder of the Arts Law Centre of Australia, Shane Simpson AM, whom he knows as ‘Adam’. “I wanted to do a portriff of Adam on a great big canvas” says Thom. Asked why he called the portrait ‘a portriff’ he says: “I do it Thom’s way”.
Thom’s A Portriff of Adam (Shane Simpson AM) - which sees Shane rendered with extra eyes and rounded eyeglasses - was selected as a hero image for the Prize. It was enlarged onto a banner and proudly hung at the entrance of the AGNSW for the duration of the exhibition.
Bookending the Archibald success was the selection of Mathew Calandra’s Stations of the Cross for the Sulman Prize exhibition. A watercolour, ink and coffee wash triptych, it is an interpretation of the Easter story (with an almost Postmodern spin).
“There was an Easter bunny carrying a cross” Mathew explains. “A big bad dog bit the rabbit’s leg. The bunny got a little bandage in the tree home. The bunny was wounded but recovered and came alive again.”
Months after the conclusion of the Prize, the Art Gallery of New South Wales acquired Stations of the Cross for their permanent collection. A purchase from such a leading Australian institution isn’t only a badge of great personal honour, but a guarantee that the work will continue to live on in the public domain.
This was Victoria, Thom and Mathew’s first time exhibiting in the Archibald and Sulman prizes respectively, and the acquisition of Mathew’s work in the Gallery collection is a major milestone. We are so very proud of their deserved success and can’t wait to see what next year brings.
