The art that made me: Richard Lewer

'It’s a big relief and celebration all in one go’, said Richard Lewer of his 2026 Archibald Prize win, ‘I’d seen past winners and known it was quite a crazy ride, and now I’m part of it.’ Lewer, a six-time Archibald Prize finalist, has now taken out the top award with his portrait of Pitjantjatjara Indigenous Elder, artist and traditional healer, Iluwanti Ken. The pair have known each other for several years and in the lead-up to her portrait, they spent time together on Country at Tjala Arts in the APY Lands, South Australia.

How did Ken respond to the news? ‘I got a big scream from her, which was great!’ said Lewer, ‘she said she was going to wear an orange hat to the opening, so she’d already worked out her outfit. It was pretty special.’ In this large-scale portrait, Ken stands front-and-centre in her trademark colourful clothes against a glowing background, suggesting the heat and light of her Country. Lewer said, ‘In person, Iluwanti is a small woman, but she carries immense, quiet authority. I painted her life-size, so her presence meets the viewer directly.’

Born in New Zealand, Lewer has lived in Melbourne since 1996. His work centres on people, their stories, experiences, and the broader human condition. When asked why he became an artist, Lewer responded, ‘I think it was something that burned within me. It wasn’t really a question of “maybe I’ll be an artist”, it was always going to be.’

On the following pages, Lewer considers four artists from the Art Gallery’s collection who have influenced him.

Philip Guston

East Tenth 1977

Guston is a really important artist for me to look at because of the autobiographical nature of his work, the way he engaged in a political and social context is something I also feel compelled to document in my practice. His figures often feel like malleable clumps of clay, and I can see a connection to the pink, weeping forms that appear across my work. I’m also drawn to his shifts in scale. He moved between very large murals and very small paintings. And he’s a painter’s painter; you kind of enjoy the physicality of his paintings. He’s pretty damn brilliant.

Francisco de Goya Y Lucientes

The sleep of reason produces monsters 1797–98

You just can’t escape this guy can you. Well, I can’t! I love the way he uses light, and how he engages with social and political themes, and there’s a strong sense of social realism in his work. His paintings seem to hover between the grotesque and the beautiful, the seductive even, and I’m drawn to that tension. It’s a compelling place for a work to sit, to have both beauty and ugliness – kind of like the world we live in now. Goya has this incredible ability to pull you in and provoke an emotional response. I’m drawn to the deranged, the demonic, the religious, and that sense of something unsettling – the scary factor!

Colin McCahon

Teaching aids 2 (July) 1975

When I was 14, I borrowed a book from the library for a school assignment. We had to imitate an artist, and mine was Colin McCahon. He wrote directly onto the surface of his paintings, and his work seemed to grapple with the same kinds of struggles I was experiencing, particularly around religion and making sense of life.

There was something so direct about it, just white paint on black canvas, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t have to colour all the way to the edge.’ While others chose artists like Cézanne or Monet, I liked that I’d picked a New Zealand artist, who was well known, but not nearly as much as he is now. He inspired me very, very early on before I understood what painting was all about.

Sidney Nolan

Ned Kelly 1955

I’ve got a complicated relationship with Nolan’s paintings. At times I find myself resisting them, perhaps because I see similarities in my own work. When I came to Australia, people assumed I must have been influenced by Nolan, but he wasn’t especially prominent in New Zealand. It was only after I arrived here that I began to understand what a magnificent painter he was. I recently saw the Ned Kelly series in Canberra and spent some time with it, and it really surprised me. I feel like I’m still discovering him. There’s a major show coming up at the Art Gallery of New South Wales [Nolan: Origins], and I’m very excited to see his work brought together.

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Interview by Emma McLean, Sydney-based arts writer and editor.