Sydney-based Dunghutti artist Blak Douglas wins 2022 Archibald Prize with portrait of Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens standing "knee-deep in floodwater in her hometown of Lismore flanked by foreboding rain clouds, one for each day the rain fell and drowned the Northern Rivers"

The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 May 2022:

Sydney-based Dunghutti artist Blak Douglas painted 14 dark, flat-bottomed clouds hovering around the fierce face of Karla Dickens for this year’s Archibald Prize-winning portrait. A signature element of his art, he normally draws his clouds “white and fluffy, just like our governments”.

But for Moby Dickens, Dickens is portrayed knee-deep in floodwater in her hometown of Lismore flanked by foreboding rain clouds, one for each day the rain fell and drowned the Northern Rivers.

Archibald Prize 2022 winner, Blak Douglas ‘Moby Dickens’.
CREDIT: BLAK DOUGLAS

In its 101 years, the Archibald Prize has regularly managed to capture the zeitgeist but with Moby Dickens Douglas has painted one of the most politically charged portraits in recent memory. Highly recommended was Jude Rae for her portrait of scientist, engineer and inventor Dr Saul Griffith who argues rapid electrification is Australia’s path to net-zero.

In the midst of an election campaign, both paintings carry powerful messages to politicians to act on climate change. More explicitly, Douglas says his portrait of his dear friend stands as a call to vote out the Morrison government.

“This painting stands to represent the irony that under the Coalition government the arts is continually kicked in the guts,” Douglas told this masthead. “Here we’ve got the winner of the greatest prize on the continent, which gets all the adulation and media attention, speaking about the importance of global warming and climate change – to a government that consistently kicked us in the guts by sapping arts funding to pump it back to opening new coalmines. This painting is extremely significant in that sense.”…..