The Northern Rivers Times Edition 133

By TIM HOWARD

People wanting to take in the 2022 Archibald Prize exhibition at the Grafton Regional Galley have only days left to do it.

The exhibition, which opened on December 17, winds up on Sunday 29 January and has been stunning success, said gallery director Niomi Sands.

Ms Sands people from all over Northern NSW have come to the Gallery to take in the exhibition which is touring 6 galleries around Australia.

“The exhibition has encouraged people to come to the Clarence

Valley during the summer holidays,” Ms Sands said.

“Some people who

viewed the exhibition in Sydney have come to see it again while they have holidayed in the Clarence.

The 2022 Archibald has special signifcance for Northern Rivers residents after the judges awarded the $100,000 frst prize to Aboriginal artist Blak Douglas for his portrait of fellow First Nations artist Karla Dickens.

Titled Moby Dickens, the larger than life size painting was inspired by the tragic foods that hit the Northern Rivers in February and March last year.

Ms Sands said many people from Lismore

Rob and Ella Davies made the trip from Lennox Head to take in the Archibald Prize exhibition at the Grafton Regional Gallery. The humour in Avraham Vofsi’s portrait of John Safran as David and Goliath appealed to Rob, but Ella’s favourite was the Anh Do portrait of Peter Garrett.

came specifcally to see that painting.

“The artwork means a lot more to people from

Lismore than any other artwork,” she said.

“And it’s so much

better to come and see it hanging in the Gallery than so see it in reproduction.”

Ms Sands said the Archibald exhibition demonstrates the of the capacity of new Gallery extension to host major touring exhibitions.

She said it allowed the Gallery to comfortably exhibit all the paintings from this year’s award as well as exhibit all the entrants from the Young Archie award.

“We have paintings from 120 local school children on show,” she said. “It was such a

The Archibald Exhibition enable a finalist in the artists with an intellectual disability category, Catherine McGuinness to visit her aunt, Grafton resident Ann Muldoon. Ms McGuinness painting is of Sydney artist Rosemary Deacon, dressed as a seagull and titled Rosary with the Seagull.

joyfulexhibition and a great way to celebrate the creativity of our

young artists

This year’s Archibald fnalist exhibition also includes fve works from Studio A, a Sydney collective of artists with intellectual disability who have had their most

Northern Rivers artist and art dealer Robert Bentley casts a professional eye over the Anh Do portrait of Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett at the Archibald Prize exhibition at the Grafton Regional Gallery.

year to date. One of the Studio A artists, Catherine

McGuinness took the opportunity to visit her “second aunt” Grafton resident Ann Muldoon for the exhibition.

Mrs Muldoon said she didn’t get to see

her niece as often as she liked and was delighted the Archibald had included one of her works.

First awarded in 1921, the Archibald Prize was established following a bequest from former Art Gallery trustee and founder of The Bulletin magazine, JF Archibald (1856-1919), whose aim was to foster portraiture, support artists and perpetuate the memory of great Australians.

The open competition has been awarded annually (with two exceptions: 1964 and 1980) to the best portrait “preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in arts, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’.

Entries to the Archibald Prize must be painted in the past year from at least one live sitting.

Archibald Prize fnalists are also eligible for the Packing Room Prize and the ANZ People’s Choice.

The 2022 Archibald Prize winner, Blak Douglas, and his sitter Karla Dickens, with Grafton Regional Art Gallery director Niomi Sands at an artist talk at the gallery on Saturday. The winning entry is hanging behind them.