The AGNSW has announced 43 finalists including two of John Bell, while a Lisa Wilkinson portrait wins Packing Room Prize.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales has announced the finalists in this year’s 96th Archibald Prize. The popular prize for portraiture, now worth $100,000, attracted more than 820 entries, with 43 paintings making it onto the Gallery walls, among them two portraits of actor/director John Bell.

Forty percent of the finalists are new to the Archibald. There are also a number of Archibald regulars including Robert Hannaford (a finalist for the 20th time), Nicholas Harding and Paul Newton.

Peter Smeeth’s portrait of Lisa Wilkinson wins this year’s Packing Room Prize. Photograph courtesy of the Art Gallery of New South Wales

But the man of the moment at today’s announcement was Steve Peters, the former Head Packer who retired in March after 35 years at the Gallery. In 1991, Peters inadvertently initiated the Packing Room Prize with an off-the-cuff comment, and was on hand to present his 26th and final Packing Room Prize – to Central Coast artist Peter Smeeth for his portrait of journalist and television personality Lisa Wilkinson.

Introducing Peters,...