Michael Zavros's portrait of Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin, painted weeks after the Bondi terror attack, has won the 2026 Archibald people's choice award. The painting, titled Alex with his tefillin in the sea, earned Zavros the $5,000 prize. A record 45,769 votes were cast this year, the highest in the competition's history.
Inspiration and symbolism
Zavros said he was inspired by 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 said. "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. The portrait includes a tefillin, a small black leather box with straps containing Torah verses. Zavros noted that cultural symbols can express faith and belonging but are often used to divide.
Personal connection
Ryvchin said the tefillin held deep personal meaning. "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," he 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."
Zavros recently discovered through a DNA test that he has 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 the Ukraine as a four-year-old refugee in the 1980s," he said.
Other prize winners
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 the $3,000 packing room prize, decided by AGNSW staff.
The Wynne prize for landscape painting and figurative sculpture went to Gaypalani Waṉambi for The Waṉambi tree, worth $50,000. The $40,000 Sulman prize for genre, subject and mural painting was awarded to Lucy Culliton for Toolah, a painting of one of her seven greyhounds. A record 2,524 entries were received across all three prizes this year.
Exhibition details
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. Australian Associated Press contributed to this report.
