An artist’s portrayal of a Jewish leader, painted just weeks after the Bondi terror attack, has won the Archibald people’s choice award - because nothing says ‘we’re moving on’ like a slightly damp portrait in the sea.
Michael Zavros took home the $5,000 prize for his painting of Alex Ryvchin, co-head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, whom Zavros described as an “unmistakably and unashamedly Jewish” leader. This year, 45,769 votes were cast - the highest number ever received, proving that people really do love a good portrait, especially when it comes with a backstory involving a beach meeting and a DNA test.
Zavros said he was inspired by a deep respect for Ryvchin’s leadership and an uncanny likeness between the two men. “A few years ago, my mother thought she saw me on TV, but it wasn’t, it was Alex,” Zavros explained. “As a natural leader, he spoke with clarity and conviction about the grief within his community and the changes he feared were emerging in our nation.”
The painting was created after the two met in early January at a beach in Sydney’s east, just weeks after the Bondi attack. “I wanted to paint him in water, or the sea, which carries so much rich symbolism,” the artist said. Also included was a tefillin - a small black leather box with straps containing Torah verses - because nothing says ‘cultural identity’ like a religious accessory you have to explain to the art critics.
Zavros noted that cultural symbols can express faith, history, and belonging, yet too often are used to divide. The portrait is officially named Alex with his tefillin in the sea. “It’s something that binds Jewish people to thousands of years of custom, it binds us to our almighty, and for me personally, binds me to someone who was very dear to me, someone who I lost at Bondi,” Ryvchin said. “Every time I would see him, without fail, we would do tefillin together and in the moments before he was killed … I’m sure at this moment he’s smiling at what he’s seeing.”
A couple of years ago, Zavros took a DNA test and unexpectedly discovered he had Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, alongside his Greek and Irish ancestry. “It’s worth reminding ourselves how fortunate we are to live in this great Western liberal democracy that welcomed my family from Cyprus in the 1950s, and welcomed Alex who arrived from Ukraine as a four-year-old refugee in the 1980s,” he said.
The $100,000 Archibald prize was won by Richard Lewer for his portrait of artist Iluwanti Ken. The 105-year-old prize is awarded to the best portrait of a person “distinguished in art, letters, science or politics” painted by an Australian resident. Self-taught artist Sean Layh’s portrait of actor Jacob Collins won him the $3,000 packing room prize, decided by the AGNSW staff who hang the paintings each year.
The Wynne prize for landscape painting and figurative sculpture went to Gaypalani Waṉambi for The Waṉambi tree ($50,000), while the Sulman prize for genre, subject and mural painting went to Lucy Culliton for Toolah, a painting of one of her seven greyhounds ($40,000). A record 2,524 entries were received across the three prizes this year.
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2026 exhibition is open at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until 16 August, before the Archibald finalists begin a regional tour across Victoria and New South Wales - because nothing says ‘culture’ like a painting of a greyhound touring the countryside.