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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Self portrait, 2024

Mitch Cairns

Darling Portrait Prize 2024 Finalist

oil on linen (support: 124.4cm x 104.2cm depth 6.0cm)
Self portrait, 2024

Mitch Cairns
born Australia 1984

Self portrait 2024
oil on linen

‘This painting began with a drawing; an improvised drawing of the artist in his studio, moving away from the viewer where one might usually expect a meeting of sorts. This portrait is not an exercise in obfuscation, nor is it a missed opportunity to paint an image-likeness. It is – rather – a record of how I approach a painting with the limited means I have at my disposal and the belief that in obscuring my face I might achieve another type of likeness, one that documents the ongoing task of re-tethering myself to the picture-making process.’

Mitch Cairns is an artist working on Wangal Country in Sydney, whose practice balances the playfulness of improvised pictorial concepts with a deft and economic handling of line and tone. His work is informed by the love, banality, self-reflection, eroticism, melancholy and anxiety
of domestic/familial life.


© The artist

People's Choice Award

Darling Portrait Prize 2024

Voting closes Sunday 29 September 2024.

Submit vote

Darling Portrait Prize 2024
(More information, View all 24 paintings)

Lyndal
In reverence of comedic wisdom – Gerard Lee
Golden hour
Miriam Vale Merlo Coffee Shop

Related information

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William Nuttall with horses in field, 2023 Noel McKenna
William Nuttall with horses in field, 2023 Noel McKenna
William Nuttall with horses in field, 2023 Noel McKenna

Darling Portrait Prize 2024

Current exhibition

from Saturday 22 June

The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG.
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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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