Mitch Cairns (b. 1984), painter and cartoonist, won the 2017 Archibald Prize with a portrait of his partner, artist Agatha Gothe-Snape. Cairns studied at the National Art School, Sydney in 2006, halfway through his three years as studio assistant to the late Adam Cullen. Immediately after graduation he began participating in group shows in Tasmania, Sydney and Melbourne. Since then he has held solo exhibitions in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Shepparton. Cairns co-founded an artist-run space, The Cosmic Battle for your Heart, which operated in Sydney from 2009 to 2011. In 2014 he created a commission for Shepparton Art Museum, and the following year held a solo exhibition, The reader's voice, at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. A finalist in the Archibald in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and 2017, he was named runner-up in 2014 and 2015 with his portraits of Reg Richardson, now in the National Portrait Gallery collection, and Peter Powditch, purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Cairns' awards include the Brett Whiteley Traveling Art Scholarship (2012), which included a residency at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris, and the Linden Art Prize at Linden Contemporary, Melbourne (2012). Cairns is the founder and director of Ankles, an artist-led initiative in Sydney, and curated the 2019 Primavera: Young Australian Artist exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.
