It is Archibald’s time again, the competition run by the gallery of New South Wales generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. This year the Packing Room Prize has gone to Adbul Adbullah for his painting of his friend and fellow artists, Jason Phu.
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00:00They say art is in the eye of the beholder and today's beholders were those here at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and in their eyes there could only be one winner, unanimously choosing this work titled No Mountain High Enough.
00:16It's artist Abdul Abdallah's seventh time as an Archibald finalist, this time creating a portrait of his friend and fellow artist Jason Foo.
00:24I'm feeling especially stoked today, really, really happy to be picked by the packing team and the installation crew, really stoked.
00:33Jason has been my best friend for about 10 years, a little bit over maybe and he's such a generous and kind-hearted guy, he's someone that I've always wanted to paint and I wanted to gift him a painting and painting him for the Archibald is a really good excuse.
00:46So when I asked Jason to paint him, he had a couple of criteria. One was that it would fit in his apartment, so that's the size and the other thing was that he wanted to be surrounded by animals like a Disney princess, so I was happy to facilitate that and I wanted to paint him as this reluctant hero, almost this lone ranger riding across this desert landscape.
01:06He's overcome these big obstacles, he's on his tired horse and they're rode into town and they're going to help with whatever's happening there.
01:14First awarded in 1991, the Packing Room Prize is selected by those who unpack and hang all of the entries for the Archibald.
01:22Staff say they've chosen this one as it shows the artist's humour and Foo navigating today's social climate as a lone ranger.
01:29It's also the first time female artists outnumber men as finalists across the three prestigious categories.
01:35You get to know the works, you know, and you start thinking about these stories, you know, it's hard to say if I've got a favourite. I do like this wall right behind me.
01:43The finalists for all three prizes, including the win, Sulman, Young Archie and of course the Archibald, were announced today, but we'll have to wait until next Friday to find out who will take home the top award.