Artist ‘honoured and thrilled’

SYDNEY: Sydneybased artist Tony Costa has won this year’s Archibald Prize for his portrait of fellow Australian artist Lindy Lee.

Costa was announced the winner of the $A100,000 ($NZ106,105) prize for portraiture, now in its 98th year, at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney yesterday.

It is the first ever Archibaldwinning portrait to feature an Asian Australian subject.

‘‘I’m absolutely overwhelmed, honoured and thrilled,’’ Costa said in a statement.

‘‘I am very aware of all those who have come before me as Archibald Prize winners and I am humbled, to say the least.’’

He made the final cut three times previously — in 2015, 2017 and 2018 — but it is the first time he has won Australia’s most prestigious painting prize.

Lee is a contemporary Australian artist herself and a Zen Buddhist. — AAP

PHOTO: AP Got there this time . . . Artist Tony Costa poses in Sydney, Australia, yesterday, with his portrait of artist Lindy Lee after he won the Archibald Prize.