Lewis Miller (born 1959 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

) is an Australian painter and visual artist, known for his portraits and figurative works.

History

Miller's father Peter Miller was a painter in the

social realist Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

tradition. His sister Lisa Miller is an Australian singer-songwriter. He studied painting at the

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (FFAM). It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus ...

in Melbourne from 1977 to 1979, and then travelled to London, Europe and

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. He held his first solo exhibition in 1986 and is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, state and private galleries. In 1998, he won the

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

, which brought him greater prominence and led to many further commissions. He has travelled widely, including to the US in 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2005. In 2003 and 2005, Miller was commissioned to produce a series of portraits of the scientists and technicians involved in the mapping of the

human genome The human genome is a complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans, encoded as the DNA within each of the 23 distinct chromosomes in the cell nucleus. A small DNA molecule is found within individual Mitochondrial DNA, mitochondria. These ar ...

. His other commissioned portraits include

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

coach Ron Barassi, mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary and scientist James D. Watson. In 2003, he travelled to

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

as Official Australian War Artist. By 2005, he had entered the Archibald prize 17 times and had been a finalist 13 times. He was interviewed in the 2005 Peter Berner documentary ''Loaded Brush''. As of 2022, Miller has been a finalist in the Archibald prize 18 times, including with his portrait of Deborah Conway. He currently lives in Melbourne with his wife and one son.

Awards

* 1982 – Hugh Ramsay Portrait Prize * 1998 –

– ''Portrait of Allan Mitelman No 3'' * 2000 –

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

, Sporting Portrait Prize – ''Ronald Dale Barassi'' * 2017 – Rick Amor self-portrait prize

References

External links

* 1959 births Living people Archibald Prize winners Australian painters Artists from Melbourne Victorian College of the Arts alumni Australian war artists 20th-century war artists Archibald Prize finalists Australian portrait painters People from Chadstone, Victoria {{Australia-painter-stub