Zavros wins People’s Choice for Ryvchin portrait

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The portrait that began with a case of mistaken identity has won the hearts of the Australian public.

Brisbane-based artist Michael Zavros has taken out the 2026 Archibald Prize ANZ People’s Choice award for ‘Alex with his tefillin in the sea’, his large-scale hyperrealist oil painting of Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-CEO Alex Ryvchin.

A record 45,769 visitors to the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW voted in this year’s People’s Choice competition, the highest number in the award’s history. First awarded in 1988, the People’s Choice is one of Australia’s longest-running audience-voted art prizes.

For Zavros, the portrait was years in the making. 

As he told The AJN when the painting was first unveiled as a finalist in May, his mother and friends had repeatedly told him they had seen him on television. The face they were seeing was Ryvchin’s, whose regular media appearances after October 7 had brought him to national attention.

“At a glance, I think you could make that observation,” Zavros laughed at the time.

Intrigued by their striking physical resemblance, Zavros began following Ryvchin’s public advocacy more closely. A DNA test taken in early 2024 added an unexpected personal dimension: alongside his Greek and Irish heritage, Zavros discovered he was eight per cent Ashkenazi Jewish.

“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,” he said.

The portrait shows Ryvchin standing in the sea at a secluded Sydney bay, wrapped in tefillin. The sitting took place in late January, weeks after the December 2025 Bondi attack on Chanukah by the Sea, lending the image layers it might not otherwise have carried.

Zavros described the work as an exercise in listening. 

“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.”

Ryvchin told The AJN the theme of tefillin, which holds deep personal meaning for him, was Zavros’s idea. “For me, tefillin means Eli Schlanger. He’s the guy I always did it with.”

The element of water, he added, “symbolises renewal. I think the timing of it, the elements of the portrait, were highly significant”.

Both men were surprised by the friendship that emerged 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.

On winning the People’s Choice, Zavros said he was “deeply honoured” that visitors connected with the work.

“By a strange connection, a physical likeness, I found common ground with Alex and realised that what unites us as Australians is far more powerful than what divides us,” he said. “It is truly humbling that the work has resonated so strongly with audiences.”

Art Gallery of NSW director Maud Page said the portrait had been a favourite with visitors since voting opened, describing it as a work about connection “between artist and sitter, but also between communities, and Australians seeking to better understand one another”.

Ryvchin said he was proud of what the portrait represents beyond the canvas. 

“I’m thrilled that a Jewish subject matter is hanging at one of our most prestigious cultural institutions,” he said.

Zavros has been a finalist in all seven of his Archibald entries. 

Based in Brisbane, his work is held in major public collections including the Art Gallery of NSW, and he is a past winner of the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize.

As the People’s Choice winner, Zavros receives $5000.