Artist Matt Adnate has been awarded the Packing Room Prize 2024 for his portrait of Baker Boy. Photograph courtesy of The Art Gallery of NSW. Northern Rivers-based artist Matt Adnate has taken out the 2024 Packing Room Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales for his portrait of ARIA Award-winning Yolŋu rapper, dancer, artist and actor Baker Boy. He is the first street artist to win the prize, now in its 33rd year.
Adnate was among 57 finalists in Australia’s most prestigious art award, the Archibald Prize 2024. Rhythms of heritage marks Adnate’s second time as an Archibald Prize finalist, following his 2023 finalist painting of musician and former Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns.
Adnate learned to paint through doing graffiti letters as a teenager, before switching to portraiture in 2010. This painting was produced mostly with spray paint, a medium Adnate said had “allowed me the most control”.
“It’s been a challenge to maintain my own technique and resist the pressure to use oils or more traditional mediums,” he said. On receiving the news, Adnate said he was “absolutely stoked” to win the Packing Room Prize 2024.
“I have always been inspired by music as it can help me channel and evoke strong emotion into my work. It gives me the energy to keep painting, from canvases in my studio to large-scale murals. I’m in awe of artists like Baker Boy who have the power to use music to transform people’s mood, mind and energy.” he said, adding, “It was an honour to paint him again and capture the intensity of his music.”
The Packing Room Prize is awarded to the best entry in the Archibald Prize as judged by the Art Gallery staff who receive, unpack and hang the entries. The prize, valued at $3000, is selected in 2024 by the ‘Packing Room pickers’,Timothy Dale, Monica Rudhar and Alexis Wildman, with the broader Packing Room team.
