The Art Gallery of New South Wales has announced that Brisbane artist Julie Fragar has won the Archibald Prize 2025 and $100,000 for her portrait of fellow Brisbane artist and colleague Justene Williams, titled Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene), which depicts Williams as an ‘active master of a multiverse of characters and events’.
A four-time Archibald Prize finalist, Fragar broke into tears when Art Gallery of New South Wales director Maud Page phoned this morning to deliver the news that her work had been selected as the winner from 57 finalist works.
“You work your whole career imagining this might happen one day,” said Julie Fragar. “Thinking back to myself as a 17 year old showing up at the Sydney College of the Arts – a kid from country New South Wales – it’s incredible to think I have won the Archibald Prize.”
“Portrait painting wasn’t taken as seriously in the 1990s as it is today. I have always regarded the Archibald Prize as a place that understood the value of portraiture. To be the winner of the Archibald Prize is a point of validation. It means so much to have the respect of my colleagues at the Art Gallery. It doesn’t get better than that,” said Fragar.
Speaking of her sitter, Fragar said: “Justene is incredible. I feel very fortunate that she allowed me to do this portrait. There is nobody like her. The work is a reflection on the experience of making art to deadlines, and the labour and love of being a mother.”
Flagship Mother’ in the title comes from Justene’s recent endurance performance in New Zealand titled Making do rhymes with poo, which was about the labour of ‘getting by’. Fragar and Williams work together at the Queensland College of Art and Design, where Fragar is the head of painting and Williams is the head of sculpture,” said Fragar.
This is the 15th time the Archibald Prize has been awarded to a woman, and Fragar is the 13th woman to win since its inception in 1921.
“Here are two of Australia’s great artists in conversation about what matters most to them. Julie Fragar has a sumptuous ability to transcend reality and depict her subjects technically but also psychologically,” said Art Gallery director, Maud Page.
“Justene Williams is a larger-than-life character, a performer – cacophonous and joyous. In this work, she is surrounded by her own artworks and, most important of all, her daughter Honore as a tiny figure atop a sculpture. It speaks to me as a powerful rendition of the juggle some of us perform as mothers and professionals.”
The Archibald Prize and the Wynne Prize winners are decided by the Art Gallery’s Board of Trustees. Board president Michael Rose congratulated all the finalists in the 2025 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes and commended the high standard of work this year.
“Julie Fragar’s work is a portrait for our time. It’s a highly accomplished formal painting that is also incredibly contemporary. The work is vibrant, outward-facing and optimistic, and we were captivated by its energy,” said Rose.
Sydney artist Jude Rae has won the Wynne Prize 2025 and $50,000 for her painting Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal, depicting an immense sky underlaid with the rust reds of impending sunrise. Rae’s painting was selected from 758 entries for the Wynne Prize in 2025 and is one of 52 finalists on display at the Art Gallery.
Gene A’Hern has won the Sir John Sulman Prize 2025 and $40,000 for his work Sky painting – a bold, vibrant and gestural work that draws on his relationship to the Blue Mountains where he lives and works. This is A’Hern’s first time as a finalist in the Sulman Prize, with his winning work selected from among 30 finalists.
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition is on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from Saturday 10 May to Sunday 17 August 2025. For more information, visit: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au for details.
Images: Winner Archibald Prize 2025, Julie Fragar, Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene), oil on canvas, 240 x 180.4 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter | Winner Wynne Prize 2025, Jude Rae, Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal, oil on linen, 200 x 150.4 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio | Winner Sulman Prize 2025, Gene A’Hern, Sky painting, oil and oil stick on board, 240 x 240 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio