Abdul Abdullah has won the Packing Room Prize at this year’s Archibald Prize for No mountain high enough, his portrait of Jason Phu.
Born in Perth, Abdullah is a multidisciplinary artist who divides his time between Melbourne and Bangkok.
He is a seven-time finalist in the Archibald Prize, and one of 57 finalists — from 904 entries — for this year’s prize, held annually at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW).
Abdul Abdullah has won the Archibald’s 2025 Packing Room Prize for his painting of Jason Phu, ‘No mountain high enough’.
Abdullah became the youngest-ever finalist in the Archibald in 2011, for a portrait of Waleed Aly. It was the first time the artist had ever visited the AGNSW.
Phu — a fellow artist who won the 2015 Sulman Prize — is also a 2025 Archibald finalist, for his painting of Hugo Weaving.
Jason Phu’s painting of Hugo Weaving, ‘older hugo from the future fighting hugo from right now in a swamp and all the frogs and insects and fish and flowers now look on’.
Abdullah said in a video played at the announcement he was “stoked” to have his work recognised by his peers in the AGNSW packing room.
The two artists met 10 years ago when Abdullah moved to Sydney.
“It’s kind of a funny meet-cute — I met him at the pub after an art exhibition,” Abdullah tells ABC Arts.
“I didn’t know he was an artist. He was just a guy in a dishevelled suit, with his hair up in a bun and a manilla folder with all this stuff falling out.”
The pair quickly became close, with Phu serving as best man at Abdullah’s wedding.
Abdullah describes Phu as his best friend and says they talk on the phone every day.
“He’s one of the most kind-hearted, generous people that I know. He’s almost like … a reluctant hero, so that’s how I wanted to portray him,” he says.
The portrait shows Phu astride a horse, with a rugged mountain landscape in the background. Nine cartoon-like birds, each a different colour, encircle Phu’s head.
“I imagined this wanderer on a horse who’s crossed a big desert landscape; he’s almost rust-coloured, the same colour as the horse, because of the terrain that he’s crossed — and he’s not necessarily happy to be there,” Abdullah says.
It took Abdullah a month to complete the portrait. He began with sketches of Phu’s face and hands and modelled the horse from digital collages he constructed from images he bought online.
More than half the finalists are portraits of artists or self-portraits.
Abdullah says, as a rule, artists make good subjects.
“They’re more tolerant of how they’re depicted; there’s not a specific expectation.”
AGNSW curator Beatrice Gralton says: “I think artists turn to their own community and each other for humour, for pathos, and there’s a trust there.”
Natasha Walsh’s portrait of Atong Atem, ‘The Yellow Odalisque of Brunswick’.
- Jump to the full list of Archibald finalists
What is the Packing Room Prize?
Since 1991, the Packing Room Prize, worth $3,000, has been chosen by the Art Gallery of NSW staff who handle the portraits in the gallery’s packing room.
Past winners of the Packing Room Prize include portraits of musician Baker Boy, late comedian Cal Wilson and filmmaker Taika Waititi. No artist who has won the Packing Room Prize has ever gone on to win the Archibald Prize.
Alexis Wildman, senior installation officer and member of the Art Gallery’s Packing Room team, says the judges were instantly drawn to Abdullah’s portrait of Phu.
“Both are accomplished artists whose works have a distinct style and engage with complex social and cultural themes using wit and cartoonish references. The team holds great respect for the way both Abdul and Jason have progressed in their careers.
“On a technical level, this portrait is very well painted. It really captures the essence of the subject with the image of a lone ranger, an intrepid jokester or a quiet hero navigating the rocky terrain of today’s social climate.”
Who are the finalists for the Archibald Prize?
Twenty-one of the 57 finalists for this year’s Archibald Prize are finalists for the first time. Two of this year’s entrants — Natasha Bieniek and Tsering Hannaford — have been finalists 11 times.
Six past Archibald winners are in the running to win again this year: Peter Wegner, Vincent Namatjira, Yvette Coppersmith, Mitch Cairns, Fiona Lowry and Marcus Wills.
Vincent Namatjira’s self-portrait, ‘King Dingo’.
2025 is the third year in a row that works by women outnumber works by men.
This year marks the second highest number of First Nations Archibald finalists (6): Namatjira, Kaylene Whiskey, Adrian Jangala Robertson, JESWRI, Robert Fielding and Billy Bain. They bring the number of First Nations artists in the prize’s 104-year history to a total of 37.
More than half (34) of the portraits are of either fellow artists or one of 12 self-portraits, including paintings of Cressida Campbell, Atong Atem and Chris O’Doherty (aka Reg Mombassa), who is a finalist for the first time in almost 20 years.
Linda Gold’s portrait of Neale Daniher, ‘Still standing and fighting’.
A number of finalists were also the subjects of other artists’ paintings including Phu, Robertson (painted by Clara Adolphs) and Natasha Walsh (painted by Jonathan Dalton).
Other recognisable faces among this year’s sitters include 2025 Australian of the Year Neale Daniher, activist Grace Tame; comedian Aaron Chen, sisters Antonia and Nicole Kidman; actors Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto and Felix Cameron (Boy Swallows Universe); ABC News Breakfast host Bridget Brennan; and Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis. They’re joined by musicians including William Barton, Katie Noonan and triple j presenter Nooky.
Of the 59 people painted across the 57 finalist works, 31 are women and 28 are men, 12 are First Nations, and 15 are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Finalists for the Archibald Prize are chosen by the board of trustees of the AGNSW, including artists Tony Albert and Caroline Rothwell.
Jaq Grantford’s portrait of Antonia and Nicole Kidman, ‘Sisters’. (Supplied: AGNSW/Jenni Carter)
The Wynne and Sulman prizes
The finalists for the $50,000 Wynne Prize for landscape painting or figure sculpture, and the $40,000 Sulman Prize for a genre or subject painting or mural were also announced on Thursday. This year’s Sulman is judged by artist Elizabeth Pulie.
Robert Fielding, an artist of Pakistani, Afghan, Western Arrente and Yankunytjatjara descent, is up for all three prizes. Two more First Nations artists — Billy Bain and Vincent Namatjira — are finalists in both the Archibald and the Wynne.
Other finalists in both prizes are Natasha Bieniek — who won the Wynne in 2015 — Vipoo Srivilasa and Natasha Walsh. Former Archibald winner Mitch Cairns is also up for the Sulman, while Michael Snape is up for both the Wynne and the Sulman.
Studio A artist Thom Roberts — a finalist in last year’s Archibald, and a subject of one of this year’s finalists — is a Sulman finalist, alongside artists including Zaachariaha Fielding, one half of Australia’s 2024 Eurovision entry, Electric Fields.
Dean Cross, Betty Muffler and Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, who was also painted for this year’s prize, are among the finalists for the Wynne Prize.
For the first time this year, of the 139 finalists across the three prizes, women outnumber men, 72 to 67.
Evan Shipard’s portrait of Costa Georgiadis, ‘The green man’. (Supplied: AGNSW/Jenni Carter)
Archibald finalists 2025
- Abdul Abdullah for ‘No mountain high enough’. Sitter: Jason Phu
- Clara Adolphs for ‘Adrian Jangala Robertson (paintbrush and hat)’. Sitter: Adrian Jangala Robertson
- Jessica Ashton for ‘Katie Noonan’. Sitter: Katie Noonan
- Mostafa Azimitabar for ‘The definition of hope’. Sitter: Grace Tame
- Billy Bain for ‘Rona and Pig at Palm Valley’. Sitter: Rona Panangka Rubuntja
- Natasha Bieniek for ‘Cressida Campbell’. Sitter: Cressida Campbell
- Angela Brennan for ‘Bridget in my painting’. Sitter: Bridget Brennan
- Yuriyal Bridgeman for ‘Sana Balai, curator, visits Yuriyal’s studio’. Sitter: Sana Balai
- Mitch Cairns for ‘Stephen Ralph’. Sitter: Stephen Ralph
- Mathew Calandra for ‘His face like my face — self-portrait as Robert Englund playing Freddy Krueger’. Sitter: Mathew Calandra
- Peter Ke Heng Chen for ‘I’m a little fish in New York (ripples of ambition)’. Sitter: Aaron Chen
- Rachel Coad for ‘Home’. Sitter: Ken Leung
- Yvette Coppersmith for ‘Self-portrait with two cats’. Sitter: Yvette Coppersmith
- Luke Cornish and Christophe Domergue for ‘Blood, sweat and tears’. Sitter: Yvonne Weldon
- Jonathan Dalton for ‘Natasha in the other room’. Sitter: Natasha Walsh
- Whitney Duan for ‘Banquet (Rainbow Chan)’. Sitter: Chun Yin Rainbow Chan 陳雋然
- Jeremy Eden for ‘Felix Cameron’. Sitter: Felix Cameron
- Remy Faint for ‘Ramesh (with mask)’. Sitter: Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran
- David Fairbairn for ‘Head of BF no 2’. Sitter: Bruce French
- Timothy Ferguson for ‘Keiran’. Sitter: Keiran Gordon
- Robert Fielding for ‘Malatja malatja (into the future)’. Sitter: Arnold Dodd
- Julie Fragar for ‘Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene)’. Sitter: Justene Williams
- Linda Gold for ‘Still standing and fighting’. Sitter: Neale Daniher
- Jaq Grantford for ‘Sisters’. Sitter: Antonia Kidman and Nicole Kidman
- Yolande Gray for ‘I won’t wish, I will’. Sitter: Pippin Drysdale
- Tsering Hannaford for ‘Meditation on time (a left-handed self-portrait)’. Sitter: Tsering Hannaford
- JESWRI for ‘Nooky, The Voice’. Sitter: Corey “Nooky” Webster
- Brittany Jones for ‘New Madonna’. Sitter: Brittany Jones
- Solomon Kammer for ‘Kim’. Sitter: Kim Leutwyler
- Madeleine Kelly for ‘Diana through threads’. Sitter: Diana Wood Conroy
- Daniel Kim for ‘Thom Roberts’. Sitter: Thom Roberts
- Bronte Leighton-Dore for ‘Monica in her studio’. Sitter: Monica Rani Rudhar
- Richard Lewer for ‘You are only as good as your last painting’. Sitter: Richard Lewer
- Fiona Lowry for ‘Ken Done’. Sitter: Ken Done
- Col Mac for ‘Miranda and Prince’. Sitter: Miranda Otto
- Catherine McGuiness for ‘Shan is a little little little mermaid’. Sitter: Shan Turner-Carroll
- Kerry McInnis for ‘Savanhdary’. Sitter: Savanhdary Vongpoothorn
- Kelly Maree for ‘Jackie O’. Sitter: Jackie O
- Vincent Namatjira for ‘King Dingo’. Sitter: Vincent Namatjira
- Chris O’Doherty (aka Reg Mombassa) for ‘Self-portrait with nose tube’. Sitter: Chris O’Doherty (aka Reg Mombassa)
- Sassy Park for ‘Casey’. Sitter: Casey Chen
- Sid Pattni for ‘Self-portrait (the act of putting it back together)’. Sitter: Sid Pattni
- Meagan Pelham for ‘Magic Nikki and Charlie Fancy Pants party … DJaaaaaaaay’. Sitter: Charlie Villas and Nikita Majajas (aka Chakita)
- Jason Phu for ‘older hugo from the future fighting hugo from right now in a swamp and all the frogs and insects and fish and flowers now look on’. Sitter: Hugo Weaving
- Adrian Jangala Robertson for ‘Warwick Thornton’. Sitter: Warwick Thornton
- Joan Ross for ‘Kidjerikidjeri’. Sitter: Coby Edgar
- Sally Ryan for ‘Lette Loose’. Sitter: Kathy Lette
- Evan Shipard for ‘The green man’. Sitter: Costa Georgiadis
- Loribelle Spirovski for ‘Finger painting of William Barton’. Sitter: William Barton
- Vipoo Srivilasa for ‘Self-portrait as a cat’. Sitter: Vipoo Srivilasa
- Clare Thackway for ‘With the shadow’. Sitter: Clare Thackway
- Natasha Walsh for ‘The Yellow Odalisque of Brunswick’. Sitter: Atong Atem
- Peter Wegner for ‘Portrait of Sue Chrysanthou’. Sitter: Sue Chrysanthou
- Kaylene Whiskey for ‘From comic to canvas’. Sitter: Kaylene Whiskey
- Marcus Wills for ‘Cormac in Arcadia’. Sitter: Cormac Wright
- Callum Worsfold for ‘Self-portrait in the studio’. Sitter: Callum Worsfold
- Lucila Zentner for ‘Wendy in the gallery’. Sitter: Wendy Sharpe
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2025 exhibition runs from May 10 to August 17 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Winners will be announced on Friday May 9.
The World Observer Media produces a daily online newspaper, a daily Arabic online newspaper and a monthly printed Arabic/English magazine and a weekly printed Arabic/English newspaper.
The World Observer Media’s mission is to entertain and educate all generation from the Ethnic Communities in Australia, who are interested in local, national and foreign information. 
