There’s no hiding in Richard Lewer’s world. But it’s OK.
In confrontation with the extremes he relishes probing in his artworks – a full gamut of wonders and terrors; gaffes, guffaws and unbearable griefs – we feel safe with him. Disarmed. He understands there’s companionship in sharing confidences. Without judgement, he lures us into the confessions and stories of regular folks to find common ground in our own fallible human nature and experiences.
Whether his chosen theme is sport, true crime, voyeurism, Catholic rites, a heartbreakingly incomplete suicide pact, redheads or personal disasters, Lewer seeks out the pith of the thing (despair, injustice, humour, resiliance, humiliation, great love, death …). And with deceptive simplicity, using sophisticated artmaking skills, he pares down the drama to its most expressive form.
A restless appetite for challenge drives him as much as discipline and training. Firstly, to gather material, either directly from interactions with others or by reading. Secondly, to switch mediums – anything from billiard-table skins and acoustic-board tiles, to steel, copper, mirror and clay – and to move across drawing, painting, animation, performance and installation. Finally, to immerse himself in new physical goals that play into his life and artmaking, like boxing, trekking the Kokoda Trail or preparing for Melbourne’s 100km Oxfam Trailwalker. Yarning, of course, is always part of the action.
Of the boundaries he often talks about dissolving, the slippery spaces between private and public, between the studio and life outside, are most intriguing for him. The work represents more than the art object itself: it’s the summary of its evolution, the people, places and emotions invested there.
Richard Lewer completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland (1992) and a Master of Visual Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne (2000). He has been a six-time finalist in the Archibald Prize, winning the award in 2026 with his portrait of senior APY artist and Ngangkari (traditional healer) Iluwanti Ken. His work has also been shortlisted for the Sulman Prize (2023), Basil Sellers Art Prize, Blake Prize, and the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture. Recent major exhibitions include What They Didn’t Teach Me in School, New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Wellington (2024); the NGV Triennial (2023), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; On-Site, commissioned for the opening of Sydney Modern at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2022); and NZ Disasters, Auckland Art Gallery (2020). Lewer’s work is held in major public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Monash University Museum of Art, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery, and Waikato Museum, as well as numerous private collections in Australia and internationally.