Lewis Miller (born 1959 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

) 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 the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...

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. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...

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

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. He held his first solo exhibition in 1986 and is represented in the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, 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 DNA within the 23 chromosome pairs in cell nuclei and in a small DNA molecule found within individual mitochondria. These are usually treated separately as the ...

. 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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

coach Ron Barassi, mountaineer

Sir Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropy, philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became th ...

and scientist

James D. Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick and ...

. In 2003, he travelled to

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

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 Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

documentary ''Loaded Brush''. As of 2022, Miller has been a finalist in the Archibald prize 18 times, including with his portrait of

Deborah Conway Deborah Ann Conway (born 8 August 1959) is an Australian rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, and had a career as a model and actress. She was a founding member of the 1980s rock band Do-Ré-Mi with their top 5 hit "Man Overboard". Conw ...

Awards

* 1982 – Hugh Ramsay Portrait Prize * 1998 –

– ''Portrait of Allan Mitelman No 3'' * 2000 – Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sporting Portrait Prize – ''Ronald Dale Barassi'' * 2017 –

Rick Amor Rick Amor (born 3 March 1948 ) is an Australian artist and figurative painter. He was an Official War Artist for Australia. Life and work Rick Amor was born in Frankston, Victoria, Australia. He has a certificate in art from the Caulfield I ...

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