List of Archibald Prize 1986 finalists
This is a list of finalists for the 1986 Archibald Prize for portraiture, listed by Artist and Title. As the images are copyright, an external link to an image has been listed where available.
| Artist | Title | Subject | Notes |
| Margaret Ackland | Beth Mayne | ||
| Davida Allen | Dr John Arthur McKelvie Shera | Winner: Archibald Prize 1986 | |
| Naomi Berns | David Williamson | ||
| Jonathan Bowden | Portrait of Robert Stonjek, Unpublished Poet | ||
| John Caldwell | John Brackenreg | ||
| Fred Cress | David Armstrong | ||
| William Dargie | Tony Rafty The Caricaturist | ||
| Robert Eadie | Portrait of Alex Trompf with Pauline Webber | ||
| David Fairbairn | Three portraits of WCF | my father | |
| John Gillham | Vermeer, Van Meegeren and Van den Berg: portrait of Yelle | ||
| Leeka Gruzdeff | Rita Hunter | ||
| Christine Hiller | Homage to Van Gogh: self-portrait with peasants | ||
| Frank Hodgkinson | Donald Friend | ||
| Keith Looby | John Bloomfield's Arta Eaten | ||
| Vladas Meskenas | Desiderius Orban | ||
| Robert Morris | Ian Smith, artist and self-portrait 1986 | ||
| Aileen Rogers | Richard Mackay | ||
| Victor Rubin | Auto-mask | ||
| Garry Shead | Martin Sharp | ||
| Eric John Smith | Richard Hall, Author and Journalist | ||
| Ian Smith | Portrait of Ray Hughes from life | with unreliable photography | |
| Joshua Smith | Professor Fred Rost | ||
| Nigel Thomson | Kate Grenville | Writer/ Mother | |
| Wes Walters | Portrait of William J. Hughes | ||
| Michael Winters | Urban forms, primitive forms and Jim McClelland | ||
| Salvatore Zofrea | Eileen Chanin 1986 |