This year's Archibald prize has embraced a look into the multi-verse. Brisbane artist Julie Fragar has taken out the award while the sky has inspired winners of the Wynne and Sulman prizes.
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00:00Two friends celebrating the win of a career. Julie Frager's portrait of fellow artist Justine Williams taking out this year's Archibald Prize.
00:12Justine's energy is the energy of a conjurer and so I knew that there had to be a central figure and a sense of her sort of willing and whipping things into being.
00:22The work shows Williams in costume surrounded by props from her performance pieces.
00:27There's an amazing way that Justine has with materials where she can grab this that and the other thing and just turn it into something amazing.
00:34Justine Williams didn't see the work until this morning.
00:37She knows me and I'm actually very humble Julie so sorry thank you. It's really nice to see that.
00:46The Brisbane based pair say it's a win for their local scene.
00:50It can be a fairly Sydney oriented prize obviously at the Archibald New South Wales but we're very grateful to have that work that's being done in Queensland acknowledged.
01:00Both the Wynn and Sulman prizes for landscape and genre work were awarded this year to paintings inspired by the sky.
01:08The artists say that it's a unifying body and serves as a reminder to look up.
01:12The sky represents the big things and how small we are and I think that that is one of the reasons that a lot of artists are thinking about that.
01:23Sulman winner Glen Ahern's work titled Sky Painting reflects his perspective of nature near his Blue Mountains home.
01:30It's about very much a homage to that place or just going for walks with my kids and family and that sense of belonging in a landscape.
01:40The 57 finalists will be on show in Sydney followed by regional areas in Victoria and New South Wales.