Tuesday, June 10, 2025

BALD ARCHY AWARD


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The Bald Archy is an Australian art prize, which parodies the prestigious portraiture award, the Archibald Prize. It usually includes cartoons or humorous works making fun of Australian celebrities.

It was founded in 1994 by theatre director and actor Peter Batey, it is judged by Maude, Batey's cockatoo. The winning 2023 portrait featured Batey flying through a cloud filled sky on the back of Maud the cockatoo.


When asked about the prizes' choice of judge, Batey stated:

“It takes 12 galahs to judge the Archibald but only one cockatoo to judge the Bald Archy,” - Peter Batey OAM, 2016 

Since 2005, the home of the competition and its accompanying exhibition has been the Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga.

Batey died in June 2019, in a car accident near his home at Coolac, New South Wales. He bequeathed the past winning portraits and the rights to run the annual prize to the Museum of the Riverina in Wagga Wagga. The Museum relaunched the Prize in February 2023.

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Winner 2025:

Phil Meatchem - Despicable Ploy

Meatchem’s winning work satirises opposition leader Peter Dutton’s proposed nuclear power infrastructure plan and is one of six representations of Mr Dutton in the prize this year.

“I’m not an artist with a strong political view,” Phil Meatchem said. “It was a simple idea of what looked like a pretty scary dude, to me at least, and these ominous-looking nuclear monoliths.”

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The 2024 People’s Choice Award was also announced, going to artist Marty Steel for his work, Let there be a Thousand Blossoms Bloom, which features a banana-toting Bob Katter.


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Some selected 2025 finalists:

Brad Blaze - A Chip off the Old Croc

Bronwyn Berg - Skip to the Louvre

Lesley Fitzpatrick - Gina's Golden Girls

Chris Roe - Fury Road

Cynthia Mortyn - Special Skills

Mark Tippett - Here's Lidia! (The Thorping)

Marty Steel - Spud Gun

Joanne (Jojo) Skillington - Miss Congeniality

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Some past winners:

2024 - Judy Nadin, Flippin’ Kerfection
Flippin’ Kerfection, a satirical caricature depicting Australian professional soccer player Sam Kerr OAM’s iconic celebratory backflip in exaggerated action

2019 - Geoffrey by Simon Schneider

2018 - Ahn Can Do by James Brennan

2016 - Nothing To Say by Pat Hudson

2013 - The Banquet of Gina & Ginia by Warren Lane

2010 - Patti's Cake by Judy Nadin

2008 - The Official Portrait of the Danish Royal Family by James Brennan

2005 - The Cardinal With His Abbot by Tony Sowersby




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