For self-taught artist Claus Stangl, getting Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi to pose for his prize-winning portrait was a lucky coincidence.
Mr Stangl on Thursday took out the $3,000 Packing Room Prize, an Archibald Prize category that's awarded by gallery staff who receive, unpack and hang the portraits.
The Sydney-based artist says he sees portrait painting as a way to sometimes meet people he admires and took a shot at coaxing the filmmaker into a studio.
Mr Waititi agreed to sit for him in June last year while he was in Sydney making the upcoming film Thor: Love and Thunder.
"He's one of my favourite writers. His scripts are just beautiful," Mr Stangl told AAP.
"It was really fortunate. I knew if I reached out to him whilst the last Archibald was going, I might get a little window of time when he's in the country."
Mr Stangl's creative partner Stuart Miller happened to know Neil Sharma, who worked with Mr Waititi on Thor, so the artist managed to send through some ideas on how they should approach the portrait.
He settled on a 3D-style painting to express Mr Waititi's playfulness, wit and charm, and wanted it to feel nostalgic as a "homage to the graphics in the film of our era".
Guest view the finalists in the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in Sydney, on Thursday. Source: AAP / DEAN LEWINS/AAPIMAGE
"My memories are cereal boxes with 3D, posters with 3D, films coming out in 3D.
"Also, [it was] a big challenge. I like to challenge myself with each picture I make."
Head packer Brett Cuthbertson holds 52 per cent of the vote for the Packing Room Prize and this year was his last on the judging panel. He will retire after 41 years with the Art Gallery of NSW.
"In this world full of war and COVID, [it] is pretty miserable at times. This guy has a vision and a twisted sense of humour that we all need right now," Mr Cuthbertson said, referring to Mr Waititi.
A guest views some of the finalists in the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in Sydney, on Thursday. Source: AAP / DEAN LEWINS/AAPIMAGE
Mr Stangl's portrait of Mr Waititi is one of 52 finalist works for the Archibald Prize, selected from more than 800 entries.
The artist said he was already "scheming" next year's entry.
"But to be honest with you, [and] it really sounds like a cliché, but just being in the show is all you ever really ask for when you enter the Archibald," he said. "This right now is just a cherry on the cake."
A guest views the finalists in the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in Sydney, on Thursday. Source: AAP / DEAN LEWINS/AAPIMAGE
His Archibald entry is a self-portrait that he painted using a toothbrush — a practice he began on Manus Island when security guards at the detention centre refused to provide him with art supplies.
"I painted this self-portrait in order to show my story to people in Australia that I am a survivor, that I am not illegal," he told SBS News.
The Kurdish refugee said his self-portrait is the first face he's ever painted of someone he knows.
"I am very proud of this artwork. It shows a lot of feeling," he said.
"It represents every single one of [the] refugees in the world, how governments [are] treating refugees badly."
The winner of this year's Archibald Prize will receive $100,000.
Entries must have been painted in the past year from at least one live sitting with the artist.
The $50,000 Wynne Prize will go to the best landscape painting of Australian scenery or figurative sculpture, while the $40,000 Sulman Prize will be awarded to the best subject painting, genre painting or mural project in oil, acrylic, watercolour or mixed media.
In 2022, more than 1,900 entries were received for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes combined.
The remaining winners will be announced on 13 May.
Additional reporting from SBS News.
