By Liz Hobday

ARTIST Julia Gutman has won the 2023 Archibald Prize with a portrait of singer-songwriter Jessica Cerro, best known by her stage name Montaigne.

The winning artwork was made from oil, found textiles and embroidery on canvas, and has beaten 56 other finalists for the $100,000 prize.

The artwork is titled “Head in the sky, feet on the ground”.

Gutman, 29, will probably find it hard to keep her feet on the ground after the win: it makes her one of the youngest artists ever to win the Archibald, and just the 11th woman to do so.

When Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand phoned to tell her the news, she was elated.

“Shocked, dumbfounded, but very happy. It’s honestly completely surreal. I’m so grateful to be working at a time when young female voices are heard,” Gutman said.

The artist has been friends with Montaigne for years and said both of them like to experiment rather than sticking to tradition.

It makes Gutman the 100th winner of the award, one of the most prestigious in the Australian art world.

“2023 marks the 100th time the Archibald time has been awarded. In 1964 and 1980 the judges did not award a winner, I wonder what happened to them after that?” Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand said.

The $40,000 Sulman Prize has gone to Doris Bush Nungarrayi for her acrylic on linen work “Mamunya ngalyananyi” (Monster coming).

In the painting, Nungarrayi depicts several Mamus, ominous and malevolent spirits that terrify the Anangu people of central Australia.

Zaachariaha Fielding has won the Wynne Prize with an acrylic on linen work titled “Inma”, measuring more than three metres across.

The painting by the first-time finalist depicts the sounds of Mimili, which is a small community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.

Gutman featured in Primavera 2022: Young Australian Artists exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and was also a finalist in the 2021 Ramsay Art Prize.

For the first time in 2023, there were more works by women (30) than men (27) selected as Archibald finalists.

Also including the Wynne and Sulman Prizes, there were more entries than ever from Aboriginal artists, with 101 entries in total and 38 selected as finalists.

The paintings will be exhibited at the Art Gallery of NSW from May 6 to September 3, and then tour until June 2024.