Brisbane artist Julie Fragar has won the Archibald Prize 2025 and $100,00 for her portrait of fellow Brisbanite (and artist) Justene Williams. The piece is titled “Flagship Mother Universer (Justene)
As of 2025, 13 women have won the Archibald Prize, however, two women artists have won twice. Those winning artists were Judy Cassab (1960 and 1967) and Del Kathryn Barton (2008 and 2013).
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2025 exhibition runs from 10 May to 17 August at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, before touring regional areas across NSW and Victoria.
Who won the Archibald Prize 2025?
It was an emotional moment for Brisbane artist Julie Fragar when she received the phone call telling her she’d won the 2025 Archibald Prize. “You work your whole career imagining this might happen one day,” she said through tears, after learning the news from Art Gallery of New South Wales director Maud Page. She has been a finalist for the prestigious award four times.
Fragar’s winning portrait, Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene), is a richly layered oil painting of fellow artist and colleague Justene Williams. Described as depicting Williams as “an active master of a multiverse of characters and events,” the vibrant and complex work explores what it means to be both an artist and a mother, sometimes simultaneously, often chaotically, and always with deep dedication. A fitting choice on the eve of Mother’s Day weekend in Australia.
“There is nobody like her,” Fragar said of Williams. “The work is a reflection on the experience of making art to deadlines, and the labour and love of being a mother.”
Art Gallery director Maud Page praised the winning work for its psychological depth and emotional truth. “Justene Williams is a larger-than-life character, a performer – cacophonous and joyous… It speaks to me as a powerful rendition of the juggle some of us perform as mothers and professionals.”
Who won the Wynne Prize 2025?
Sydney artist Jude Rae has won the 2025 Wynne Prize and $50,000 for Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal, a luminous painting capturing the fleeting light before sunrise.
Selected from 758 entries, the work reflects Rae’s view from Redfern toward Kamay (Botany Bay), a site rich with colonial and Indigenous history.
“I certainly never expected to win,” Rae said. “I grew up with the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes, with my dad entering. I’m honoured and very pleased.”
Of the scene, she added: “There is no way to photograph it – it’s too subtle and too fleeting. It’s a big sky and we’re all really little.”
Who won the Sulman Prize 2025?
Gene A’Hern has won the 2025 Sir John Sulman Prize and $40,000 for Sky painting, a vibrant, gestural work inspired by his deep connection to the Blue Mountains.
In his first time as a Sulman finalist, Gene said, “To be awarded the Sulman Prize is a great honour and I feel very humbled to stand alongside such talented Australian artists.”
Reflecting on the painting, he added: “It conveys a sensation of nature’s gestures… translating an omnipresence that comes from dust and returns to dust.”
Judge Elizabeth Pulie praised the work’s “unselfconscious dedication to line and colour” and its energetic celebration of paint.
