Australia is a nation that thrives on competition. We celebrate our champions with awards and accolades from the sporting stadium to the big screen. No field is immune from our desire for excellence, least of all the arts, where most galleries, big or small, draw attention to themselves and their program through competitive annual art prizes. But what happens when creativity and competition meet?
In 2025 artistic practice was given the reality show treatment with the release of ABC’s Portrait Artist of the Year, a reality series that brought portraiture into living rooms across the country. From a field of 54 contestants, the winner earned the rare opportunity to have their work displayed on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery.
This year’s Annual Lecture will be presented by academic, author, art historian and judge of Portrait Artist of the Year, Associate Professor Robert Wellington. Robert will explore our fascination with art as competition – the merits and the limitations. He will also take us inside the unique world where, for the first time in Australia, reality TV and portraiture collided.
The evening will begin at 6:00pm with a welcome drink, with formal proceedings commencing at 6:30pm.
The lecture will be live captioned and livestreamed with Auslan interpretation. If you can’t join us in person, tune in from the comfort of your own home with a Virtual Connection ticket.
Robert Wellington bio
Associate Professor Robert Wellington is a judge on the award-winning ABC TV series Portrait Artist of the Year. He works in the Centre for Art History and Art Theory at the Australian National University and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Robert has published extensively in English and French on the art and culture of Louis XIV’s France. His recent book, Versailles Mirrored: The Power of Luxury from Louis XIV to Donald Trump (Bloomsbury, 2025) has been featured in Vanity Fair, Washington Post, and the New York Times. Robert has a reputation as an engaging public speaker and has presented lectures around the world at venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and the Palace of Versailles. For the Andrew Sayers Memorial Lecture, Robert will reflect on the popularity of portrait prizes and invite you to be the judge.
