Abdul Abdullah, Finalist for the Archibald Prize 2023

27 Apr 2023

Congratulations to Abdul Abdullah on being a finalist for the esteemed Archibald Prize 2023. 

The now six-time Archibald finalist, Abdullah, presents Self-portrait after MD 2. Fascinated by the familiarity and playfulness of Marlene Dumas’s ‘iPhone’ (2018) painting in her exhibition “Open End” at Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 2022, his painting continues exploring the tension between the perception of a person or community and the reality of their lived experience.

He states, “[…] so much of my engagement with the outside world comes through such devices on platforms designed to edit, embellish and filter how we are seen, but then the screen was off, and I saw myself.”

The Archibald Prize is Australia’s most beloved and significant art award, celebrating portrait painting since 1921, “preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australia’. The winner will be announced on 5 May 2023.

Image: Self-portrait after MD 2, 2023, oil on linen, 40.6 x 51 cm