Born in Melbourne in 1959, Lewis Miller trained at the Victorian College of the Arts in the late 1970s, and completed post graduate studies at the College in 1982. In that same year the artist was awarded the College’s Hugh Ramsey Portrait Prize.
Miller is considered one of this country’s leading figurative and portraiture artists. In 1998 he won the prestigious Archibald Prize with his entry of fellow artist and friend Allan Mitelman. In all, he has been a finalist in the Archibald fifteen times, including this year with his portrait of Melbourne accountant Tom Lowenstein.
In 2000 Miller was awarded the Sporting Portrait Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, with his painting of AFL icon Ron Barassi. More recently in 2007 he won the James Farrell Self Portrait Award, Castlemaine Art Gallery, Victoria. In 2003 Deakin University’s Stonington Stables Museum of Art curated an exhibition of the artist’s work Lewis Miller: selected portraits 1983-2003. Sitters for public and private portrait commissions received by the artist have included Mr Baillieu Myer AC, Nobel Laureate Dr James D. Watson, and explorer Sir Edmund Hilary.
In 2003 Miller was appointed Official Australian Artist to the conflict in Iraq by the Australian War Memorial. He spent three weeks in the Middle East recording the service of the RAN, RAAF, and Army.
Miller’s work is represented in numerous collections both in Australia and abroad including the National Gallery of Australia; National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; Australian War Memorial; Art Gallery of New South Wales; National Gallery of Victoria; University Art Museum, University of Queensland; University of New South Wales; Monash University; Deakin University Art Collection; Auckland War Memorial Museum; Bibliotechque Nationale de France; Karolyi Foundation Collection, Vence, France; and the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, Long Island, New York.
