'I'm surprised to be here,' says Meyne Wyatt, the first time an Indigenous artist has won any of the prizes on offer in the Archibald Prize in its 99-year history. 'It was just a COVID project first.'
The last formal painting Meyne completed was a portrait of his cousin, AFL player Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls. "I always wanted to get back into it but life and work got in the way so there was never an opportunity ... so it was now or never."
Namatjira, grandson of legendary watercolourist Albert Namatjira, chose retired champion footballer Adam Goodes as his subject., was motivated to paint Goodes after seeing last year's documentaries detailing his lifelong fight against racism."Watching those films stirred up some pretty rough feelings, and memories of my own experiences," said Namatjira.
"We support each other here at Iwantja Arts, we're proud of each other's achievements," he said. "I did tell them though, that they have to get shortlisted a few more times before they catch up to me!"Alongside the Archibald successes, Peter Mungkuri, Alec Baker and Betty Muffler from Iwantja have been shortlisted for the Wynne Prize.
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