Archibald prize 2026: Richard Lewer’s portrait of artist Iluwanti Ken wins $100,000 | Archibald prize 2026
Richard Lewer was awarded the 2026 Archibald Prize for his portrait of Iluwanti Ken, a Pitjantjatjara elder, traditional healer and senior artist.
The New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based artist, a six-time Archibald finalist, was announced as the winner of the $100,000 prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Friday. The jury panel, consisting of the gallery’s board of trustees, unanimously selected the work from 59 finalists out of 1,034 applications.
At the ceremony, gallery director Maud Page said of the winning work: “What can be said? You see the painting. You see its strength, you see the balance. You see everything we know makes Australia unique in the world.”
In the artist statement accompanying the work, Lewer described spending time with Iluwanti, who was also a finalist in this year’s Wynne award, at Tjala Arts in Amata, on South Australia’s Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) territory. “Being with Country deepened my understanding of its existence and the responsibilities it carries,” he said.
“In person, Iluwanti is a small woman, but she has a tremendous, quiet authority. I painted her life-size, so her presence meets the viewer directly. The yellow ocher background conveys the intensity of the heat and light in which we work. She loves bright clothes that feel inseparable from her soul, and the paint marks on her arm show that she is a working artist, as if she had just left the studio.”
Michael Rose, director of the Art Gallery’s board of trustees, said all the judges were “immediately interested” in the winning work. “A powerful and energetic portrait of a successful artist, capturing the energy of another artist he admires and respects. You can feel that admiration.”
Australia’s most prestigious portrait award, the Archibald, is awarded annually to the best portrait of a person “distinguished in the fields of art, literature, science or politics” by an Australian resident and has been awarded since 1921.
In what becomes somewhat predictable each year, in 2026 the number of artists illustrating themselves or other artists outstrips all other subject categories. Other cultural figures featured on the shortlist include musicians Daniel Johns and Mostafa Azimitabar’s Jim Moginie by Loribelle Spirovski, actor Marta Dusseldorp by Amanda Davies, and journalists Virginia Trioli and Jan Fran, painted by Stieg Persson and Vicki Sullivan respectively.
In addition to Archibald, the $50,000 Wynne prize for landscape painting and figurative sculpture was also awarded Friday to Gaypalri Waṉambi for the Waṉambi tree. Waṉambi was not there to accept the award, but in the artist statement he said: “This work is about the ancestral honey hunter Wuyal, an important ancestor of the Marakulu clan. Wuyal was the first man to seek a homeland for the Marakulu people.”
The artist also said that at Wynne, Sanné Mestrom received great acclaim with her 245.5 x 150 x 90 cm sculpture titled What the Body Knows, which shows “my own body learns from the inside, both as a mother’s body and as a sculptor’s body.”
The $40,000 Sulman prize for best genre painting, subject painting or mural was won by Lucy Culliton for her work Toolah, a painting of one of seven hounds that live with the artist in the Snowy Monaro region of NSW. “This chair is Toolah’s favorite place to sleep while I’m painting in the studio,” Culliton said in the artist statement. “I love how it camouflages itself within the upholstery.”
The selection process was particularly competitive in 2026, which saw high participation with a total of 2,524 entries for the three awards.
Adrian Jangala Robertson, a Warlpiri artist from Australia’s Central Desert region, earned the distinction of being a finalist in all three categories: the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman awards. Robertson, who painted Dylan River for Archibald, is one of eight artists deemed worthy of multiple awards this year.
Announced on 30 April, the Packing Room award, given by gallery staff who acquired and hung the Archibald exhibition, was won by first-time finalist Sean Layh, a self-taught painter whose portrait of actor Jacob Collins was described by the judges as “an instant standout”.
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Awards 2026 exhibition opens to the public on Saturday 9 May and will run until 16 August before Archibald finalists embark on a regional tour in Victoria and New South Wales.
