Lewis Miller

Who is Lewis Miller?

Lewis Miller is an Australian painter and visual artist, known for his portraits and figurative works. His father Peter Miller was a painter in the social realist tradition. His sister Lisa Miller is an Australian singer/songwriter.

Lewis studied painting at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne from 1977 to 1979, and then travelled to London, Europe and Malaysia. 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 prestigious Archibald Prize, which brought him greater prominence and lead to many further commissions. He has travelled widely, including trips to the USA 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.

His other commissioned portraits include Australian rules football coach Ron Barassi, mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary and scientist James D. Watson. In 2003 he travelled to Iraq as Official Australian War Artist.

As of 2005, he has entered the Archibald prize at least 17 times and been hung 13 times.