Recent ABR Arts reviews

• David Barmby reviews Turangalîla-Symphonie (Australian World Orchestra) ★★★★
• Dilan Gunawardana reviews The Trip to Spain (Madman Entertainment) ★★★★
• Harry Windsor reviews A Monster Calls (Entertainment One) ★★★★
• Peter Rose reviews Thaïs (Opera Australia) ★★★★1/2
• Andrea Goldsmith reviews The Merchant of Venice (Bell Shakespeare) ★★★★

Archibald Prize

Mitch Cairns’s portrait of his partner and fellow artist Agatha Gothe-Snape has won the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s 2017 Archibald Prize.

Agatha Gothe Snape by Mitch Cairns (image courtesy of the Art Gallery of New South Wales)‘The skill and sensitivity of Mitch’s portrait left a significant impression on us all,’ said David Gonski, president of AGNSW’s Board.

Mitch Cairns, a four-time Archibald Prize finalist, described his stylised work as being ‘composed with love’, and told The Age that painting his partner of ten years was often stressful: ‘You’ve got to continue making the painting when you’ve maybe had a bit of a row, and you continue to paint the painting when you’re deeply in love ... The painting has to harness all of the complications that a relationship has.’

Peter Smeeth’s portrait of journalist and television personality Lisa Wilkinson won the Packing Room Prize. Works by Archibald Prize finalists will be on display at AGNSW until 22 October 2017.