Alex Ryvchin (left) and artist Michael Zavros pose for a photograph with Michael’s painting of Alex after winning the Archibald 2026 ANZ People’s Choice award at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Thursday, July 30, 2026. Photo: AAPIMAGE via Reuters Connect

A portrait of Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, painted mere weeks after the deadly Bondi Beach terrorist attack, won the public vote in one of Australia’s most prestigious art competitions on Thursday.

Brisbane-based artist and seven-time Archibald finalist Michael Zavros received the 2026 Archibald Prize ANZ People’s Choice award and its $5,000 prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in Sydney after a record 45,769 votes were cast.

His oil-on-canvas painting, titled Alex with his tefillin in the sea, grew out of a meeting with Ryvchin in early January, shortly after the Dec. 14, 2025, terrorist attack targeting Jews attending a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney. The massacre killed 15 people.

The portrait depicts Ryvchin standing in the shallow water of a secluded Sydney bay, with tefillin wrapped around his left arm, as he looks back toward the artist.

Zavros knew he wanted to paint Ryvchin in water, or “the sea,” because it “symbolises so much for Jewish and non-Jewish Australians alike,” he wrote in his artist statement.

“I included his tefillin, as symbols are so important in contemporary culture,” Zavros added. “All too often, when marking identity, they are used to harm people.”

Zavros said the painting was inspired by Ryvchin’s leadership of Australia’s Jewish community following the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the Bondi massacre, as well as by the resemblance between the two men.

“A few years ago, my mother thought she saw me on television. But it was Alex Ryvchin. In the following months, a few friends also observed that we looked alike,” Zavros said in his artist statement.

Zavros said he frequently saw Ryvchin in the media after the Oct. 7 attack and watched as the Jewish leader “spoke passionately about the pain in his community and the changes he feared would emerge in our nation.”

Around the same time, Zavros took a DNA test and discovered that he had Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry in addition to his Greek and Irish heritage.

“When two gunmen attacked Jewish people on Bondi Beach … Alex led the nation in a way our elected leaders failed to do,” Zavros added. “I found common ground with this man who, like me, is a father of three.”

In his acceptance speech, Zavros said the portrait’s popularity reflected the fundamental decency of the Australian public.

“Overwhelmingly, I don’t believe Australians are racist. I don’t believe we are homophobic and I don’t believe we are antisemitic,” he said. “Those things have no place in the country we aspire to be.”

“What unites us is so much more powerful than what divides us, though it’s easier to focus on the latter,” he added.

The artist also discussed the immigrant backgrounds he shares with Ryvchin. Zavros is the child of migrants who arrived in Australia from Cyprus in the 1950s, while Ryvchin was four years old when his family came to Australia from Ukraine as refugees in the 1980s.

Zavros was one of 59 finalists for this year’s Archibald Prize. Other finalists included portraits of Bondi Beach attack hero Ahmed al-Ahmed and Australian Governor-General Sam Mostyn.

Richard Lewer won the $100,000 Archibald Prize in May for his portrait of Iluwanti Ken, a Pitjantjatjara elder, senior artist and ngangkari, or traditional healer. In April, Sean Layh won the $3,000 Archibald Packing Room Prize for his portrait of actor Jacob Collins in the role of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2026 exhibition will remain on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales through Aug. 16.