Archibald winner’s brush with SA
A portrait of an SA-based Pitjantjatjara Elder and artist has won the 2026 Archibald Prize.
Melbourne-based artist Richard Lewer has won the $100,000 Archibald Prize in 2026 for his portrait of Pitjantjatjara Elder and artist Iluwanti Ken.
The life-sized portrait was painted with pigments on an unprimed canvas.
Ken, who is a finalist in this year’s Wynne Prize, works out of her studio at Tjala Arts in Amata in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia.
She is known for her large-scale, monochromatic ink drawing of mother eagles (Tjukurpa) hunting.
“Being on Country together deepened my understanding of her presence and the responsibilities she carries,” Lewer said of Ken, who he said had an “immense, quiet authority”.
“I spent time with Iluwanti at Tjala Arts in Amata, in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia,” Lewer said.
“Although we have known one another for several years through shared exhibitions, being on Country together deepened my understanding of her presence and the responsibilities she carries.
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“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.
“The yellow ochre background holds the intensity of the heat and light we were working in. She loves bright clothing, which feels inseparable from her spirit, and the traces of paint on her arm acknowledge her as a working artist, as if she has just stepped out of the studio.”
All 59 finalists and winners of the 2026 Archibald Prize will be exhibited from May 9 to August 16 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
The Archibald Prize is awarded annually to the best portrait, “preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia”.
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