The 55 finalists for this year’s Archibald Prize for portraiture have been announced, and one of the lucky artists is Scottie Marsh, for his badass painting of Briggs.
The Archibald Prize is one of Australia’s oldest art awards, with a grand prize of $100,000 dollars up for grabs.
This morning it was announced that actor Meyne Wyatt won the Archibald Prize’s Packing Room Prize for his self-portrait. Alongside this announcement was the reveal of the lucky 55 artists who are in the running for the big prize.
This announcement officially kicks off ‘Archies season’, with concurrent exhibitions of the Wynne Prize for landscape painting and the Sulman Prize for subject painting, genre painting and mural projects.
One of the finalists for the Archibald is Scottie Marsh and his painting of rapper, writer and record label owner Adam Briggs.
The piece is entitled Salute of gentle frustration, and is entirely badass, and features Ice Cube’s 1991 album Death Certificate printed on Briggs’ shirt.
Congrats to my mate @Scottie_marsh being a Finalist in this years #ArchibaldPrize
Ima work of art! pic.twitter.com/A79nVGK2kF
— Senator Briggs (Biblically Accurate) (@Briggs) September 17, 2020
In Scott’s own words: “Briggs is something of a modern-day Renaissance man – rapper, record label owner, comedy writer, actor, author and staunch ambassador for Aboriginal rights.
“He has an incredible work ethic and makes me feel lazy, which is a good thing!”
Brett Cuthbertson, who has worked at the Art Gallery of NSW for 39 years, told the ABC that there were more Archibald Prize entries than usual this year, mainly because of the pandemic.
“It was a huge amount — obviously because a lot of people were sitting at home doing nothing — so they painted!” he said.
“There were a lot of first-timers this year.”
The Archibald Prize will be announced on September 25, and we are absolutely rooting for Briggs and Scottie Marsh.
You can check out some of the other artworks that made the finalists cut on the official Art Gallery of NSW Instagram.
