A portrait of connection
Michael Zavros has been a finalist in seven Archibald Prizes. This year, his entry featuring Alex Ryvchin, was shaped by a DNA surprise and a stranger's face on the news.
When Brisbane-based artist Michael Zavros’ mother and several friends told him they’d seen him on TV, he was confused. Until he spotted Alex Ryvchin on the news. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-CEO had featured quite a bit on television after October 7, and seeing him stopped Zavros in his tracks.
“At a glance, I think you could make that observation,” Zavros laughed when talking to The AJN about his 2026 Archibald entry, ‘Alex with his tefillin in the sea’, a large-scale oil on canvas now hanging as one of 59 finalists in the 2026 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW.
“It was that strange physical connection that got my attention,” Zavros said. “I saw him a lot, and I listened to him, and I found common ground with this man … I think that’s what this work is about, too. It’s about listening and understanding someone else’s perspective, and thinking about something. And whatever that initial connection was about, it prompted me to stop and listen.”
It is the seventh time Zavros has entered the Archibald, and the seventh time he has been a finalist.
The portrait shows Ryvchin standing in the water, wrapped in tefillin. The setting was Ryvchin’s idea, a secluded bay in Sydney, though the water itself was Zavros’s.
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