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Juniper redresses the feminine landscape

West Australian artist Bec Juniper with one of her abstract landscapes.

Staring from a great height at the endless plains, red-dirt roads and mining pits cut like open wounds across Western Australia, artist Bec Juniper sees something surprising. This rugged, bullish land seems strangely soft and feminine to her.

A wordless scream that says everything

Artist Rodney Pople with this year's entry into the Archibald Prize.

In the foreground a naked, seated figure voices a cry of apparently existential anguish while a black-clad priest hovers over his right shoulder like an malevolent, predatory crow. Behind, a bishop retreats serenely towards a distant church on top of a hill.

'You're not good enough': tough love at Archibald Prize

Retiring Archibald Prize head packer Steve Peters (standing) and his replacement Brett Cuthbertson, with a portrait of ...

The paintings arrive at the Art Gallery of NSW's loading dock via courier vans, trucks, maxi taxis, midsize SUVs and on a skateboard. Artist Patrick Hromas lugs a large portrait of his godmother in his arms from St James Station, his forehead dripping great gobs of sweat in the winter sun. It's his first time in the Archibald Prize. "I'm not a big fan of big heads," he says.