Media Preview - Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes & announcement of the Packing Room Prize 2019.

With over 919 entries this year, 2019 took the winning spot as the most entries (ever) for the Archibald Prize. The Wynne took 683 entries and 574 in the Sulman; and in the sweetest gesture to the next generation, the Young Archie competition had over 2100 entries.

The curation of the Prize has been mixed up this year, with the Sulman taking the opening position; being the first prize you see as you enter the exhibition. The Sulman Prize is a gem, judged by guest curator Fiona Lowry, with delights from Sally M Nagala Mulda Sally feeding little cat, mother cat; Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran Transforming into a multi-limbed figure; Claudia Nicholson I felt the rumour of the river and you / Coutra ngara the bada yuru; Jason Phu i had a nap and had a nightmare, when i woke up i was still hungry; Leslie Rice Teha'amana and her husband, Paul Gauguin; and this year’s Young Archie competition judge, Marikit Santiago Tagsibol/tagsabong.

The artworks mentioned seem to grab a transient moment; the painting appears to lift off the canvas and combine with the artists’ mythic storytelling techniques. All the artworks work with each other to create a sense of Australia, with its depths of colonialism, migration, yet, they also carry an aesthetic of beauty. The colours and lines sit at ease on their canvases.

Standouts from the Wynne Prize include Natasha Bieniek’s Reflection, which features a photorealist oil painting of trees that are reflected in the river that runs past them. Glittering greens are amplified by the border of the work, which is framed with gold mirrored metal. Bieniek draws on reflection in all senses, especially in the digitalised era where nature is forced into the virtual world.

Brother duo, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah with sculpture Mask (after Ned Kelly) and Abdul Abdullah with painting A terrible burden are positioned next to each other. They set out to ask stories of Australia’s colonial history, and the meaning this has today. First, a wooden full head mask that fills in for the character of Nelly Kelly, and an extension to the violent people who continue acts of brutality today; and the latter, an Australian landscape with the words ‘A Terrible Burden’ painted over the top. The work lends itself to connations of claiming and possessing the Australian landscape, both in art and settler history.

Continuing through the Wynne, a dazzling array of Aboriginal art conquers all imagination and romantic ideas to the vastness of Australia. Such as works by Nellie Coulthard Tjuntala ngurangka (country with acacia wattle); Barbara Mbitjana Moore Ngayuku ngura (my country); Betty Kuntiwa Pumani Antara; and Keith Stevens & Ginger Wikilyiri Piltati, Nyapari munu Ilpin. Like the aforementioned Wynne finalists, a story and a narrative seems critical to the curation, the landscape has a history and connects the artists who want to reveal their accounts.

The Archibald prize this year brought some beautiful paintings that expand on the formal qualities of a portrait. Capturing the sitter beyond their physical features. I loved Katherine Edney’s Self-portrait with Ariel and Natasha Bieniek’s Waiting for Arden which were hung next to each other in the gallery. Both are self-portraits that depict the artists, pregnant and waiting for the birth of their children. The paintings echo the emotions, raw and vulnerable, and also the unknown sentiments of pre-child. In an exhibit full of “notable Australians”, it’s so wonderful and refreshing to see how important the role of mothers and the experience of motherhood is framed in an art context, beyond gender or background.

Other paintings that piqued my interest were Benjamin Aitken’s Fiona Lowry, which looked down on all of us as the speeches commenced. Lowry was framed with a purple background which added personality to her body and face, the latter of which was blurred, sending ricocheting lines through her body. The form of her arms distorted with movement, embodying an abstract quality. This abstracted sense of form was also seen in Anh Do’s Art and war, the sculptural elements of the paint jutting out over the viewer as we took in the grace of Australian artist George Gittoes.

David Darcy and Blak Douglas both paid their respects and through their painting style, a sense of love, to inspiring Aboriginal women, Daisy Tjuparntarri Ward in Tjuparntarri – women's business and Esme Timbery in White shells, black heart, respectively. Also, showing admiration for fellow artists are Thea Anamara Perkins with Christian, depicting artist Christian Thompson in pinks, holding a rosy flower; and Vincent Namatjira portrayal of Tony Albert in Art is our weapon – portrait of Tony Albert. They contrast heavily in form, as Albert in surrounded in army camouflage; yet they both show Aboriginal defiance to forget or resist through their art practice.

The winner of the Packing Room Prize, Tessa Mackay, is as always with this prize, visually as honest as a photograph. Yet, her framing of actor David Wenham in Through the looking glass creates a story. Placing him at one with his environment, looking out to Sydney, with Sydney reflecting back onto the glass Mackay has positioned him behind. This hyperrealist piece is an ode to thinking, reflection, and to Sydney, just as it as to Wenham.

The exhibition will run from 11 May until 8 September 2019 at the Art Gallery of NSW.