When the 57 finalists in this year’s Archibald Prize are announced on Thursday, the burning question for many – aside from does the sitter like the painting – is what will this do for my career? For Vincent Namatjira, his 2020 win brought national exhibitions, though not everyone’s been happy with them - Gina Rinehart has unsuccessfully campaigned to have her portrait removed from the National Gallery of Australia. Former finalists from Studio A, Meagan Pelham, Emily Crockford, and Daniel Kim deliver their 2024 entries to the Art Gallery of NSW. With works by other Studio A artists in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes.
Credit: Janie Barrett Last year’s winner, Julia Gutman, has just lit up the Sydney Opera House sails for this year’s Vivid festival, with Lighting of the Sails: Echo, and 2022 winner Blak Douglas is the subject of a new documentary, Blak Douglas vs the Commonwealth , coming out in July. But for those from Studio A, a social enterprise that works with artists with intellectual disabilities, finalist status has brought something more fundamental: legitimacy. In the past four years, Studio A has had 11 finalists in the nation’s best-known portrait prize and two in the Sulman Prize for subject and genre painting.
“What recognition in the Archibald Prize really brings Studio A artists is legitimacy as ‘artists’,” the studio’s chief executive and artistic director, Gabrielle Mordy, said. Studio A artist Meagan Pelham, as guest curator at .