The Bald Archy Prize 2026

13 February 2026 – 15 March 2026

Launch Event: 6pm Thursday 12 February

Celebrating its 30th year in 2026, Australia’s premier satirical art prize, the Bald Archy Prize, celebrates the lighter side of art and the larrikin Australian spirit, showcases portraits that will make you think, make you talk and most of all make you laugh.

Created in 1994 as a foil to the Archibald Prize, the Bald Archy Prize provides artists with the opportunity to unleash their creativity with portraits teeming with humour, dark satire, light comedy or caricature. The $10,000 acquisitive prize is awarded for the best comic or satirical portrait of an Australian distinguished in art, science, letters, politics, sport, or the media.

Known internationally as the only art competition in the world to be judged by a sulphur-crested cockatoo named Maude, the satirical side of this event encapsulates the irreverent, larrikin Australian spirit in a way that appeals to people from all walks of life. This year Professor Maude Cockatoo is being assisted by special guest cartoonist David Pope.

2026 Bald Archy Portrait Prize Winner

Emperor Australis, by Mark Davis, was the winner of the 2026 Bald Archy Prize. A clever play on Jacques-Louis David’s iconic Napoleon Crossing the Alps, the painting depicts Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a heroic yet hilarious pose, swapping a stallion for a kangaroo as he conquers the Australian landscape.

Mr Davis won the $10,000 prize for his painting after it was announced at the Canberra Potters and Watson Arts Centre on Thursday 12 February 2026.

History of the Bald Archy

Judged by Professor Maude Cockatoo, the world’s premier avian art critic, the Bald Archy prize gives a genuine opportunity to artists of all styles and standards to create portrait paintings of humour, dark satire, light comedy or caricature. In its’ first year the prize struck a chord with the public and a nerve with the arts establishment.

“It was meant to amuse – apparently a problem with people who believe audible laughter shouldn’t be permitted in an art gallery, let alone unsolicited conversation with a complete stranger”
– Peter Batey OAM, 2015

While the Coolac Festival of Fun was retired after 12 years, due to public demand the Bald Archy Prize lives on. After the passing of Peter Batey in 2019, the administration of the Bald Archy Prize was handed over to the Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga. It is now internationally known and has been exhibited across Australia. Winning subjects have included Kerry Packer, Shane Warne, John Howard, Pauline Hanson and myriad other Australian icons.

The Judging

The Bald Archy Prize is currently the only art competition in the world judged by a sulphur crested cockatoo.

With an online PhD from the Marilyn Munro University of Little Rock, Professor Maude Cockatoo is the most qualified art critic, avian or otherwise, in Australia (according to Maude). As Coolac’s Visual Arts Laureate, Maude has been the sole judge of the Bald Archy Prize from its inception at the 1994 Coolac Festival of Fun.

Maude’s number one rule for a prize-winner is that it must be funny. Her idea of humour, according to a 2015 interview includes, “wit, slapstick, satire, vulgarity, farce, black comedy, irreverence and everything else that falls between high and low comedy”. On the other hand, Maude loathes ‘hate portraiture’, or ‘soap box art’ as she calls it. Making a special appearance in 2026 as guest assistant to the cockatoo, is celebrated cartoonist David Pope.

Recent Bald Archy Prize Exhibitions at Canberra Potters