Jamie Preisz has won this year’s Packing Room Prize, worth $1500 for a portrait of Jimmy Barnes called Jimmy (title fight) – which means that unless he makes history, he won’t be taking home this year’s Archibald Prize, for thus far never the twain have met. It is, however, the first time that the new Head Packer Brett Cuthbertson has awarded the Prize.

Jimmy Barnes with artist Jamie Preisz. Photograph © Art Gallery of New South Wales

Preisz said that he was inspired in part to paint Barnes’ photograph because of his fighting attitude and because of the death of his own sister Bella. “After losing my sister to suicide, I was touched deeply when I saw an interview with Jimmy speaking about his own suicide attempt. To me, he was fighting against the stigma of mental health issues by speaking so publicly about his own struggles, especially to generations of men who don’t feel that having emotional intelligence is a masculine quality,” said Preisz in his label.

Meryl Tankard painted by Dee Smart. Photograph © Art Gallery of New South Wales

This year, a huge 58...