{"id":417398,"date":"2026-05-08T04:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/417398\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T04:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:24:10","slug":"archibald-prize-2026-as-it-happened-richard-lewer-wins-for-iluwanti-ken-portrait-gaypalani-wanambi-claims-wynne-prize-lucy-culliton-takes-out-sulman-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/417398\/","title":{"rendered":"Archibald Prize 2026 as it happened: Richard Lewer wins for Iluwanti Ken portrait; Gaypalani Wanambi claims Wynne Prize, Lucy Culliton takes out Sulman Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Lewer has won this year\u2019s Archibald Prize for a portrait of Iluwanti Ken.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Melbourne artist Richard Lewer\u2019s portrait of Iluwanti Ken.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/13722f1286eda92d8a643905b8d9e635e0736413.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 bNAuyX\"\/>Melbourne artist Richard Lewer\u2019s portrait of Iluwanti Ken.Art Gallery of New South Wales<\/p>\n<p>The painting was announced the winner of the $100,000 prize at the Art Gallery of NSW, selected unanimously by gallery trustees from a near record 1034 entries and 59 finalists.<\/p>\n<p>Lewer said he was a \u201clucky man\u201d to paint Iluwanti Ken, a Pitjantjatjara elder and artist from Tjala Arts in South Australia\u2019s APY Lands. \u201cMaking art is a very lonely sport, I\u2019ve always said that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that he was: \u201cChuffed to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His winning Archibald subject is recognised for her large-scale ink drawings of mother eagles hunting \u2013 works that give expression to her Tjukurpa, or deep ancestral knowledge. Lewer described the opportunity to paint her as \u201ca treat, honour and absolute privilege\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Iluwanti Ken.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/abb9641cc76b780866f6ab8c72937c79f46b8927.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 bNAuyX\"\/>Iluwanti Ken.<\/p>\n<p>The two artists were already familiar with each other through shared exhibitions and gallery representation. To create the portrait, Lewer travelled to the APY Lands for the sitting.<\/p>\n<p>While Ken is a small woman in person, she carried an \u201cimmense, quiet authority felt immediately without being asserted\u201d, Lewer says in his artist statement.<\/p>\n<p>The portrait is life-sized, painted with pigments on unprimed canvas \u2013 a technical challenge that allows little room for error.<\/p>\n<p>Lewer chose a yellow ochre background to hold the intensity of the desert heat and light, and included traces of paint on Ken\u2019s arm to acknowledge her as a working artist, noting that her bright clothing is \u201cinseparable from her spirit\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Lewer has won this year\u2019s Archibald Prize for a portrait of Iluwanti Ken. Melbourne artist Richard Lewer\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-417398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}