Wollongong's three thrilling links to this year's Archibald, Sulman and Wynne prizes

Local art stars Christopher Zanko and Nick Santoro received nods in two major prizes, while Karen Black's portrait of an iconic and much-adored Wollongong Art Gallery staff member was chosen as an Archibald finalist.

A total of 138 finalists were announced for the three prizes last Thursday, May 30.

The Archibald is awarded annually to the best portrait, while Wynne recognises either landscape paintings depicting Australian scenery or figure sculptures and the Sulman is for subject painting, genre painting or murals.

Sydney artist Karen Black's painting of Vivian Vidulich, who has worked at our Burelli Street gallery since 1999, was one of 57 selected from 1005 entries in this year's Archibald Prize.

Black said it felt great to be a contender in Australia's oldest portrait award, but she was especially thrilled to have cast the spotlight on Vidulich, whom she described as "a really important woman in the art world who hasn't been recognised before".

Black said her "generous, gentle and kind" friend had been a fierce champion of artists and makers over many decades, positioning her as a pivotal player in the Wollongong creative scene and beyond.

"She goes to all of these exhibitions and she's really got a handle on contextualising what is contemporary art and what's interesting and what's relating to Wollongong," Black said.

"She's instrumental in bringing artists to the table, for the gallery to have shows and for their collection."

Black said what made 71-year-old Vidulich - who has had her portrait painted in the past by Western Sydney artist Linda Brescia - a particularly fascinating subject was her distinctive personal style.

While intensely interested in fashion, Vidulich stopped following trends in her youth, instead committing to an all-black, tailor-made skirt, top and jacket, stacked ear piercings, long jet-black hair, eyeliner and red lipstick - a signature look that's served her well for decades.

"She has all these specialist things that she wears, like an Issey Miyake handbag, and she always has the same look and I kind of layered all of those symbols over the portrait," Black said.

For her part, Vidulich - who responded with quiet elation to the Archibald announcement - said she had complete faith in Black's ability to capture her essence in portrait form.

"I gave her free rein because I respect her enormously and I know she gets me and that it would be an amazing and truthful painting," Vidulich said.

A painting that helped Nick Santoro process "a very odd neighbour" has been selected as a finalist in the Sulman Prize.

'Property boundary quarrel (neighbours)' recreates the crude taunt that was spray-painted in Italian on the Fairy Meadow house next door to his dying grandfather.

The dilapidated home, which has since been torn down, belonged to 60-year-old John Albert Soster, who was charged and convicted over a string of offences involving residents two doors up from Santoro's family, a bizarre story you can read about here.

Santoro, who has just completed an artist residency at Bundanon near Nowra, said it felt fantastic to have once again been selected as a finalist in the highly prestigious prize, a success made all the sweeter thanks to the artist doing the judging.

"I'm a really big fan of the artwork of the guest judge Tom Polo," Santoro said.

"It's a thrill to be in it but especially because it seems Tom liked the the artwork enough to put it in the prize in the year that he was judging the finalists."

Another humble Wollongong house - this one more charming than the last - has made it into the artistic hall of fame thanks to Christopher Zanko's work 'Personal plethoras'.

The 31-year-old Northern Illawarra artist, a past finalist in the Sulman and Wynne prizes, has once again been recognised in one of the nation's top art events for his nostalgic rendering of a clinker brick abode.

Zanko noticed the old property while walking to his daughter's preschool in 2023.

"The arrangement of shadows cast by the eaves and the glimpse into the backyard gave a sense of familiarity," he told the Art Gallery of NSW.

In April last year, the Mercury reported that more than 400 people were on a waitlist for one of Zanko's distinctive slice-of-suburbia works - woodcarved reliefs of the area's rapidly diminishing stock of postwar brick and fibro houses.

Though he knows better than most what is being lost (Zanko grew up in a brick/weatherboard two-bedder at Austinmer), he said he understands that change was necessary in the face of the nation's severe housing crisis.

Berry artist Craig Handley began his Archibald-nominated piece barely two months after losing his father.

While dealing with the grief and loss, the artwork became a catalyst in his healing, as well as a connection formed with subject and actor Anthony LaPaglia.

At the time, LaPaglia had landed the lead role of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, a play about personal conflicts, loss and tragedy.

"The play is about grief, and for him it's a separation between fiction and reality every day, which is really difficult and must take a toll on a performer," Mr Handley said.

"But for me it was the separation of losing my father and feeling quite alone and distant, which I think came through in the painting, with him standing behind the set."

It wasn't until he saw Mr LaPaglia in the Death of a Salesman that he knew the artwork needed a double portrait, showing both sides of his subject.

"I wanted to show his onstage character and offstage character, and his confidence onstage is evident and his questioning side in his off stage character," Mr Handley said.

The winners of the three main prizes will be announced on June 7, with the exhibition running from June 8 until September 8.

With Angela Thompson, Holly McGuinness and Samantha Lock