Acrylic attitude: No mercy in Coffs Harbour's Bald Archies exhibition

Amy Taylor from Amyl and the Sniffers is giving Blue Wiggle Anthony Field the twin middle fingers as she screams - or maybe laughs? - at him.

Field, looking smooth in his skivvy and reflector sunnies, is paying Taylor no mind, however original Red Wiggle Murray Cook is looking on, seemingly amused.

In the Bald Archies - a humorous take on the Archibald Prize, on exhibition in Coffs Harbour until May 24 - pretty much anything goes as caricature and modern art meet the Australian penchant for taking the piss out of everything.

Something to stir: As a collection of art, it’s not particularly earth-shattering in its technique and creativity, but it is brutal and funny, and may give viewers occasional pause for thought.

The acrylic painting Amyl and the Wiggles by Kate Bowditch (100cm X 75cm, $750) was inspired by “an unexpected collaboration at the 2025 ARIA Awards that we didn't know we needed”. The result, the artist says, “blurring the line between childhood nostalgia and punk rebellion”.

Other faces in the Bald Archies exhibition include You Am I’s Tim Rogers, AC/DC’s Angus Young (above, shuffling to the shops for a sausage roll), mushroom killer Erin Patterson (below) and wildlife enthusiast Robert Irwin (above, in a painting paying homage to his underwear ads).

Then there are the politicians, among them Anthony Albanese, Tanya Plibersek, Barnaby Joyce, Pauline Hanson, Peter Dutton, Anika Wells, Gladys Berejiklian, Kevin Rudd and Bob Katter.

Katter - the famously excitable renegade from Queensland - features in a number of artworks that made the final cut. 

In one, I Want To Punch Your Face, Katter is portrayed as an angry Lego style figurine, with a cockatoo and a boxing kangaroo on his back.

The acrylic on canvas piece by Megan Chung, inspired by Katter losing his temper last year at a reporter who asked about his Lebanese heritage, is 61cm x 76cm and is selling for $2,200.

The same brouhaha also led to artist Mark Bernard’s Katter's Fried Kaftas (acrylic paint and markers, aerosol on cotton canvas, 50cm x 70cm, $200), a pop art rendering of a Colonel-style bucket of “mouth punchin’ flavour”.

The exaggerated caricature technique is used on paintings of musicians Paul Kelly and Bon Scott, wildlife enthusiast Robert Irwin with a big snake, Barnaby Joyce with a big steak, TV wit Luke McGregor and soccer player Sally Shipard.

One caricature, The Dutt Plug by Scott Marsh (spray paint, acrylic, enamel on canvas; 100cm x 165cm, $5,800) pushes the bounds of good taste, with former opposition leader Peter Dutton portrayed as … a sex toy.

Labor minister Anika Wells may not appreciate Louise Sweeney’s Anika Wells’ Private Limo Girl (above, gouache on paper, 29.7cm x 42cm, $450).

By virtue of its title and description (“Jet setting around the world is so quiche”) it’s clear that this piece is linking Wells with Chris Lilley’s comic creation Ja’ime. And not in a nice way.

The Bald Archies is at the National Cartoon Gallery until May 24. More information here.