Artist’s shot at Archibald

By Sarah Schwager
GEMBROOK artist Peter Biram will come up against acclaimed artists from around the country after entering a portrait of Channel Ten news presenter Mal Walden in the famed Archibald Prize, due to be judged this weekend.
The former Channel Ten cameraman has a history of painting media personalities, previously entering portraits of ‘The Footy Show’ regular Roland Rocchiccioli.
“I really enjoyed working with Mal. I couldn’t paint someone I didn’t respect,” Mr Biram said.
“The painting is multilayered. At first glance Mal looks very relaxed and casual. It just looks like someone sitting in a garden with a shovel, a dog and a rabbit.
“On the next level, though, it’s about the country in general and how we change our natural environment to suit our needs.
“The bottom half of the painting is bright red with dots, which symbolises the past caretakers of the country, the Koori people.”
Peter said the rabbit in the portrait, painted by his 12yearold daughter Jessica, was having a dig at the art prize.
The painting is titled ‘Gypsy, Mal with Green Sun and Archibald Rabbit, as painted by fouryearold daughter’.
“It’s symbolic of when people look at art and say their fouryearold daughter could paint that,” Peter said.
“A few years ago someone painted a rabbit and got into the Archibald.
“This isn’t a dig at that painting but there has been a lot of controversy in the past about some of the paintings that have got in and that it’s not a level playing field.”
He said the fact that the same people made the finals each year suggested that it was not the pinnacle of painting in the country, as it was designed to be.
“At the moment the judges have a biography of each of the artists with the paintings,” Peter said.
“I think it should be anonymous and that they should judge on the painting alone.
“I know they are under pressure to have that prestige and have the wellknowns but I don’t think they can necessarily say that the paintings are the best of the best.”
Having entered four years running, but never making it as one of the 30 Archibald finalists, the latest of Mr Biram’s Rocchiccioli paintings was accepted into the highly acclaimed Salon de Refuse at Crown Towers in Melbourne last year.
He has lived in Gembrook since 1988 with his daughter and partner AnneMarie.
He now teaches drawing, art history, photography and painting at the Central Gippsland Institute of TAFE.
The Archibald Prize finalists will be announced on Monday.