A portrait of connection

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.

“I knew I wanted to paint him in the sea, which symbolises so much for Jewish and non-Jewish Australians alike,” Zavros said, explaining that his artistic method is to paint from photographs.

The timing of the sitting, in late January this year, gave the image layers it might not otherwise carry. It came weeks after the December 2025 Bondi attack on Chanukah by the Sea.

“The Archibald Prize and art were literally the furthest thing from my mind,” Ryvchin told The AJN, saying the theme of tefillin, which has a very deep meaning for him, was Zavros’ idea.

“For me, tefillin means Eli Schlanger,” he said. “He’s the guy I always did it with. He would come to my house and every time I’d see him, we would do tefillin without fail.” The element of water, Ryvchin added, “symbolises renewal. I think the timing of it, the elements of the portrait, were highly significant.”

What surprised both men was the friendship that emerged between them during the process.

“When you stand there in a photograph and someone paints your essence or your likeness, they kind of look into you. It’s a very intimate process,” Ryvchin said.

Zavros described the portrait as an exercise in listening. “Starting a conversation is key to how this work functions,” he said. “I took a lot of images, and I settled on something that I felt was dignified, but powerful. When I looked at it, I felt like I wanted to know more, I was drawn into it and the subject.”

Zavros also revealed a personal dimension that deepened the project’s significance. A DNA test taken in early 2024 showed he was part Ashkenazi Jewish.

“I expected to find that I would be roughly half English, Irish and half Greek. But obviously, you get a whole lot of things back, and I think I’m eight per cent Ashkenazi Jew as well,” he recalled, explaining it was a bit of a surprise. “It just deepened that connection, and it made me also feel a connection to everything that Alex was talking about, and what was emerging in Australia.”

Ryvchin said he was moved by the response the portrait has received, and proud of what it represents beyond the canvas. “I’m thrilled that a Jewish subject matter is hanging at one of our most prestigious cultural institutions,” he said. “Obviously I had very little to do with it — it’s all Michael — but I’m humbled and I’m thrilled to be there.”

The winner of the Archibald Prize, which this year received more than 1000 entries, will be announced on May 8.