Richard Lewer Wins 2026 Archibald Prize for Portrait of Iluwanti Ken
The $100,000 prize was awarded on Friday, 8 May, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW).
Artist Richard Lewer has won the 2026 Archibald Prize for his portrait of Pitjantjatjara elder and artist Iluwanti Ken. The portrait was selected unanimously by the AGNSW Board of Trustees from 1,034 entries. Fifty-nine works were selected as finalists.
"The judges were immediately drawn to the work." – Michael Rose, AGNSW trust president
The Prize and Selection
The Archibald Prize is an annual Australian portraiture award, established in 1921. It is presented to the best portrait of a person distinguished in art, letters, science, or politics, painted by an artist resident in Australasia.
Entries must be painted from life within the 12 months preceding the competition deadline. The winning portrait, titled Iluwanti Ken, was chosen by the AGNSW Board of Trustees, which includes artists Tony Albert and Caroline Rothwell.
The Portrait
The life-sized portrait depicts Ken on an unprimed canvas. A yellow ochre background is intended to represent the heat and light of the APY Lands. Flecks of paint are visible on Ken’s arm, a detail included to acknowledge her identity as a working artist.
Lewer spent time with Ken at Tjala Arts in Amata, South Australia, in November. He described her as a person with "quiet authority." Ken is an artist from Tjala Arts in the APY Lands, known for large-scale ink drawings of eagles.
Lewer stated he considered it an honor to paint her and that he hoped the portrait would recognize her role as an artist and custodian of knowledge. This is the fifth painting of a First Nations person to win the Archibald Prize in its history.
Other Prize Winners
- Packing Room Prize ($3,000): Won by Sean Layh for his portrait of actor Jacob Collins as Hamlet. The painting was inspired by a 2024 Melbourne Shakespeare Company production.
- Wynne Prize ($50,000): Awarded to Gaypalani Waṉambi for The Waṉambi tree, a metal sculpture made from spray paint on etched steel, created on the back of discarded road signs. The work depicts an ancestral story of the Marrakulu clan.
- Sulman Prize ($40,000): Awarded to Lucy Culliton for Toolah, artist model, a painting of her rescue greyhound.
- Trustees' Watercolour Prize ($5,000): Awarded to Jennifer Mills and Darcy Luker for ET home.
Sanné Mestrom received a high commendation for her sculpture What the body knows.
Exhibition
The Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman Prizes 2026 exhibition opens to the public on 9 May and runs until 16 August at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The exhibition will then undertake a regional tour.
Total entries across the three prizes were 2,524.