Matt Adnate’s Baker Boy portrait wins Archibald Packing Room prize

The Art Gallery of NSW’s chief packers have had their say in the 33rd iteration of the Archibald’s favourite side prize, the curtain-raiser to the nation’s most popular portrait award.

Artist Matt Adnate on Thursday with his Archibald Packing Room Prize portrait of ARIA award-winning Yolngu rapper Baker Boy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

The Art Gallery of NSW’s 2024 Packing Room Prize — curtain-raiser to the Archibald, the nation’s most prestigious portrait award — has been taken out by murals artist Matt Adnate for his painting of ARIA award-winning Yolngu rapper Baker Boy.

Adnate, whose portrait of ex-Silverchair star Daniel Johns was short-listed for the 2023 Archibald Prize, said it was “absolutely mind-blowing’’ to snaffle the $3,000 prize, which is decided by gallery staff who unpack and hang the entries.

The northern NSW artist, whose murals have appeared on the side of 20 and 25-storey buildings in Australia and overseas, told The Australian this was the fourth time he had entered the Archibald. “I feel very, very honoured to the win the Packing Room Prize; it’s a huge, prestigious thing for me in my career,’’ he said.

Adnate primarily used spray paint to create his Baker Boy work and he said this was “absolutely” linked to his early career as a graffiti artist. “It’s the medium that I’ve had the most control with,’’ he said.

AGNSW packing room staff Timothy Dale, Monica Rudhar and Alexis Wildman chose the winning portrait, titled ‘Rhythms of heritage’, and said it was “characterised by grand scale, vivid colours and a gaze that draws you in’’.

Baker Boy, who was raised in Arnhem Land, said it was “unreal to see how he (Adnate) captures me as I am today, reflecting my love for music and a deep connection to my home’’.

Fifty-seven Archibald finalists were also announced on Thursday and they included a symbolist portrait of Julian Assange by high-profile painter Shaun Gladwell in which the jailed activist’s face is imprinted with peace doves and takes the form of a hot air balloon.

Also making the cut was a David Griggs portrait of Gladwell featuring a skateboard, gym boot and skeletal arm, and a depiction of singer Missy Higgins holding a pink ukulele by her sister Nicola Higgins.

Fellow finalist Yoshio Honjo represents fashion designer Akira Isogawa as a samurai-like figure shadowed by a dragon, while Kirsty Neilson’s moving portrait, Cheng Lei, after China, reflects the lingering trauma the Sky News presenter endured when she was detained in the Asian country for three years. Nick Stathopoulos’s short-listed, pensive portrait of The Australian’s recently retired film critic, David Stratton – who stepped down due to ill health – is titled ‘The Last Picture Show’.

Other prominent sitters represented in the short-listed works are Matildas forward Cortnee Vine, Indigenous activist Marcia Langton — whose face seems to capture Indigenous people’s distress at the failed voice referendum — author Tim Winton, and musician and broadcaster Ed Le Brocq who is depicted as a centaur — half heavily-tattooed man, half horse.

The finalists for the Wynne landscape prize and Sulman genre award were also announced on Thursday.

The Archibald attracted 1005 entries this year, and the winner of the $100,000 prize will be announced on June 7.

The Archibald Prize finalists 2024

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