Mornington Peninsula portrait artist Vicki Sullivan is celebrating a remarkable double milestone, with one of her most powerful works acquired by the State Library of New South Wales for its bicentenary, while another has been selected as a finalist in the prestigious Archibald Prize.
Sullivan’s painting The Stolen Songline of Miss Roselands 2 Year Old has been secured for the Library’s permanent collection as part of its 200-year anniversary – an honour that places her work among significant pieces of Australia’s cultural record. The portrait tells the deeply moving story of Deborah Cheetham-Fraillon AO, a Yorta Yorta soprano, composer and member of the Stolen Generations.
The work centres on a faded publicity photograph taken when Cheetham-Fraillon was crowned “Miss Roselands 2 Year Old” at Roselands Shopping Centre, a 1960s landmark in Sydney’s south-west. The image, carefully preserved by her adoptive mother Marjory, later reappeared in a profoundly emotional moment – when Cheetham-Fraillon reunited with her Aboriginal mother, Monica, and discovered the same photograph among her most treasured belongings. Sullivan’s painting captures the poignancy of that shared history, reflecting the complex and often painful experiences of the Stolen Generations.
The artwork has already built an impressive exhibition history, including Sullivan’s 2024 solo exhibition Australian Portraits: In the Limelight & In the Shadows at Frankston Arts Centre, the Salon des Refusés at SH Ervin Gallery, and as a semi-finalist in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize, before its acquisition in 2025.
At the same time, Sullivan has been named a finalist in this year’s Archibald Prize with her portrait of journalist Jan Fran. Titled Peace Actually, the work reflects Fran’s influence as one of Australia’s most versatile media voices.
A Walkley Award–winning journalist, Fran’s two-decade career spans television, documentary, podcasts and comedy, with roles on ABC’s Question Everything, Channel 10’s The Project, and SBS’s The Feed. Beyond traditional media, she has built a significant following through her incisive social commentary online. More recently, she co-founded ETTE Media with Antoinette Lattouf, an independent platform aimed at helping audiences navigate misinformation in an increasingly complex media landscape.
Sullivan said she chose Fran as her subject after listening to the podcast We Used to Be Journos while working in her studio. Drawn to Fran’s advocacy, she describes an admiration for her “championing of free speech and human rights,” qualities she sought to capture on canvas.
Together, these achievements mark a significant moment in Sullivan’s career – one that not only recognises her technical skill, but also her commitment to telling stories that resonate with contemporary Australia while acknowledging its past.
Peninsula Essence June 2026