Sean Layh portrait of Jacob Collins wins
Updated ,first published
British-Australian actor Jacob Collins’ performance led to a series of pivotal moments that saw Melbourne artist Sean Layh win the Packing Room Award for his thought-provoking, epically staged portrait on Thursday. hamlet.
The self-taught artist was 18 when he first encountered Paul Newton’s portrait of comedians Roy and HG at the Art Gallery of NSW, where it was a finalist for the 2001 Archibald Prize.
“This gave me insight into what representational painting could be for an artist like me, who has a slightly more traditional bent in his work,” he explains. “It won the Packing Room Award and the People’s Choice award that year. So to stand here a quarter of a century later and actually receive the same award is extremely satisfying.”
Then, six years ago – with the pandemic shutting down academia and spurring a mini-art boom – Layh dropped out of a biological sciences degree at Monash University to pursue painting full-time. He soon turned to theatrical portraiture, combining his technical skill with his lifelong love of Shakespeare. “I don’t think this award would have happened if it wasn’t for COVID. Suddenly there was interest in my work,” he says.
In late 2024, Layh followed Collins in the title role, produced by Iain Sinclair. hamlet At Melbourne’s forty-fifth lower floor theatre. “It was an old, small, abbreviated production; hamlet almost by candlelight. “It was an amazing ensemble, and Jacob carried it beautifully,” Layh recalls. “I left the theater with the idea of doing something with it.”
Its striking composition The tragic history of Prince Hamlet of Denmark: a title mutually agreed upon by artist and sitter – inspired by the work of French artist Albert Maignan Chlodobert’s last moments (1880). Layh received the $3000 Packing Room Award for his first Archibald entry.
“Jacob comes into the studio and my daughter’s bed is lying on it,” she says. “We moved it down to the studio, got everything ready, and spent a whole day playing around with different ideas from the play. Shakespeare in particular lends itself beautifully to this type of picture because it’s full of these dramatic moments where you can visually portray the characters. It’s just dynamite for a painter like me.”
Immortalized subject matter, and Collins, an actor with extensive stage and film credits, is happy for the artist to “come and see the show on a good night.” He adds: “It was a pleasure to spend the session discussing the intricacies of what we both agree is Shakespeare’s deepest magic. Cheers here, Sean. The win is well deserved.”
Layh’s entry was one of 2,524 submissions received for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman awards; The second-highest award on record was only eclipsed by a pandemic-delayed 2020 that saw artists unable to leave the house.
Of the 1,034 works submitted to Archibald, 59 were selected as finalists by the gallery’s board of trustees, and the winner will be announced on Friday, May 8. Submissions must be paintings from the past year and life in which the artists met their subjects face-to-face in at least one session.
Often considered a barometer of the nation’s mood, this year’s Archibald Prize finalists largely bypass party politics to feature activists, fashion icons, artists, musicians and actors of stage and screen.
Alongside the Zimmermann siblings of Caroline Zilinsky, Técha Noble brushed Anna Plunkett, and Taryn Cameron-Smith pinned Japanese designer Akira Isogawa.
Former Archibald Prize winners return as painters and sitters: Morgan Stokes painted the 2018 Archibald Prize winner chimeric Yvette Coppersmith on linen. Nine years after his triumph, Mitch Cairns is back with a strikingly abstracted portrait of novelist, essayist and poet Gerald Murnane.
In 2020, Vincent Namatjira became the first Indigenous artist to win the Archibald Prize for his portrait of Adam Goodes. This year he depicted himself bowling with Mother Earth in the middle of the Australian desert.
Australian contemporary artist Guido Maestri, who won the 2009 Archibald Prize for his portrait of Australian singer and musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, is a finalist for a fragmented depiction of himself “with his head in the clouds”.
Filipino-Australian artist Marikit Santiago Won the 2020 Sulman Award with a painting of his three children. He painted Australia’s reappointed representative at the Venice Biennale, Khaled Sabsabi, with the title: Even pigeons have pride. Last year’s Archibald people’s choice winner, Loribelle Spirovski, was a finalist for both subject Tsering Hannaford and artist, painting musician Daniel Johns.
Walpiri artist Adrian Jangal Robertson is the only artist to achieve the trilogy and was a finalist in all three awards.
The Archibald Prize is not blind to the crosscurrents in the Middle East; Julia Dover’s rosy portrayal of Ahmed Al Ahmed, who intervenes when Bondi tries to disarm one of the gunmen.
Perth doctor Mohammed Mustafa, who is on a mission to build a children’s hospital in Gaza, sits in a small chair in Perth’s Desiree Causeway. Michael Zavros portrays CEO Alex Ryvchin Executive Council of Australian Jewsrowing in shallow waters.
The Archibald finalists and the $50,000 Wynne Prize for best landscape painting and the $40,000 Sulman Prize for best subject painting, genre painting or mural project will be on display at the Art Gallery of NSW from Saturday 9 May until Sunday 16 August.
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