Zavros wins Archibald people's choice with Ryvchin portrait
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- Michael Zavros won the $5,000 Archibald people's choice prize for his portrait of Alex Ryvchin, co-head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, who Zavros described as "unmistakably and unashamedly Jewish."
- A record 45,769 votes were cast — the highest number ever received in the 105-year-old prize's history.
- Alex Ryvchin said the painting's tefillin — a small black leather box containing Torah verses — carried deep personal weight, recounting that he and someone he lost at Bondi "without fail" would do tefillin together.
- The portrait, officially titled "Alex with his tefillin in the sea," was painted after Zavros and Ryvchin met at an eastern Sydney beach in early January, weeks after the Bondi terror attack.
- Zavros revealed he discovered Ashkenazi Jewish heritage through a DNA test, alongside his Greek and Irish ancestry, framing himself as a fellow arrival to Australia's Western liberal democracy.
- Richard Lewer took the $100,000 main Archibald prize for his portrait of self-taught artist Iluwanti Ken, with Gaypalani Waṉambi winning the $50,000 Wynne and Lucy Culliton the $40,000 Sulman.
- A record 2,524 entries were submitted across the three prizes; the exhibition runs at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until 16 August before a regional Victorian and NSW tour.
Why it matters: A record 45,769 public votes landed Zavros's portrait of Ryvchin — featuring a tefillin tied to Ryvchin's loss at Bondi — as the people's choice, turning Australia's most-watched portrait prize into a 105-year-high turnout statement on Jewish Australian grief and belonging in the months after the attack.
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