This 3D portrait project reimagines Barry Humphries through the lens of David Hockney’s celebrated portrait series. The work draws inspiration from Hockney’s vivid painting of Humphries, first exhibited as part of the artist’s remarkable sequence of contemporary portraits shown at the Royal Academy of Arts and later seen in Venice.

Barry Humphries occupied a unique place in Australian cultural life — internationally recognised for comic creations such as Dame Edna Everage, yet also deeply connected to literature, theatre, painting and collecting. Hockney’s portrait captured both Humphries’ flamboyance and his reflective, intellectual side, and this sculptural interpretation attempts to translate that same spirit into three dimensions.

Part of an ongoing series of hand-painted 3D portraits exploring major cultural figures, the work combines contemporary digital processes with traditional painterly surface treatment. Rather than aiming for photographic exactness, the piece embraces visible brushwork and a more expressive approach, echoing the energy and colour that made Hockney’s original portrait so memorable.