Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2026

This year’s Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize exhibition opens at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Saturday, 9 May, and Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin is delighted to share that three artists represented by our galleries are among the Class of 2026. Congratulations to Gaypalani Waṉambi, who was awarded the 2026 Wynne Prize for her work The Waṉambi Tree, receiving the program’s $50,000 prize. Congratulations as well to Betty Chimney, also shortlisted for the Wynne Prize, and to Juan Ford, who is a finalist in the Archibald Prize. These three artists’ selected works are now hanging at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in the state gallery’s flagship program, on view until 16 August. Two more Michael Reid-represented artists are also looming large – albeit in the frame – with Sid Pattni immortalised by finalist Elizabeth Barden and William Yang sitting for Kean Onn See, while David Darcy’s third Archibald nod coincides with his solo show Self Sabotage at Tamworth Regional Gallery, co-presented with Michael Reid Murrurundi and available to explore online here.

To enquire about work by Betty Chimney, Gaypalani Waṉambi and Juan Ford and sign up for previews of their forthcoming projects, please email hughholm@michaelreid.com.au

Yankunytjatjara artist Betty Chimney has been named a finalist in the 2026 Wynne Prize for her monumental three-panel painting Ngayuku ngura (my country), marking her fourth nomination for the preeminent accolade for Australian landscape painting and figurative sculpture. Chimney is a longtime director and leading creative force at Iwantja Arts, the Indigenous-owned and governed art centre in Indulkana on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. “Indulkana is my home,” says the artist, whose breathtaking Wynne work extends across an almost five-metre span. “For a long time, I’ve been painting this way – painting the story of this place, all the good stuff!” Chimney’s fourth Wynne Prize selection coincides with her continuing presence in the landmark exhibition Ngura Puḻka – Epic Country at the National Gallery of Australia and will be followed in July by her showing in The Gold Award at the Rockhampton Museum of Art.

Yolŋu artist Gaypalani Waṉambi is a finalist in the Wynne Prize for her multi-panel etched-metal work The Waṉambi Tree. Made from road signs found on Country, each dazzlingly reimagined with intricately etched depictions of the epic Ancestral journeys of Wuyal, The Waṉambi Tree tessellates to form a sprawling, suspended installation. “This work is about Wuyal, the ancestral honey hunter,” says Waṉambi, whose Wynne nod follows her historic win at the 2025 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, where she received the $100,000 Telstra Art Award for Burwu, blossom – another composite etched-metal work on an equally spectacular scale. Working with the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre in Yirrkala, Waṉambi is the leading female practitioner within the Found Movement, which was pioneered by her father, the late Mr Waṉambi, whom she assisted for many years and whose legacy she now continues.

Naarm/Melbourne-based Spanish-Australian artist and many-time Wynne and Sulman Prize finalist Juan Ford is a finalist in the 2026 Archibald Prize for his portrait of actor, author and podcaster Chloé Hayden. “I met Chloé in an unexpected manner when I was invited to attend a 2025 Friend in Me event,” says Ford, whose subject is an advocate for disability and women’s rights as well as an ambassador for Friend in Me, which supports inclusion and mental wellbeing for children who are neurodiverse or have disabilities. “I found Chloé friendly, engaging, appreciative and unerringly professional, even as I wrapped her in red reflective foil.” Ford’s shortlisting follows the announcement of his most significant commission to date – a 15-metre, three-panel painting for the third NGV Triennial, to be unveiled this December.