Congratulations to Brisbane artist Julie Fragar, winner of 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.”
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.”
Archibald Prize 2025 winner Julie Fragar with her work ‘Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene)’ at the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2025 winners announcement, Art Gallery of New South Wales. Artwork © the artist. Photograph: © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio
The description of “Flagship Mother” in the work’s title comes from Williams’ 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.
This is the fifteenth time the Archibald Prize has been awarded to a woman, and Fragar is the thirteenth woman to win since its inception in 1921.
Winner Archibald Prize 2025: Julie Fragar, Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene), oil on canvas, 240 x 180.4cm. © the artist. Courtesy the artist and Art Gallery of New South Wales. Sydney
Speaking of the winning work, Art Gallery director Maud Page said: “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. 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.
All finalists in Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2025 are on view at the Art Gallery of NSW from 10 May to 17 August 2025.
artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/archibald-wynne-and-sulman-prizes-2025
