Some Portraits of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran
By Freda Chiu

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Some Portraits of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran

Over the past decade, Myuran Sukumaran painted countless portraits of those around him. We asked some artists to return the favour.

This article was updated on Wednesday April 29.

In 2005 a group of nine Australians were caught trying to run 8.3 kilograms of heroin through Bali's Denpasar Airport. The following year their alleged ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, each received death sentences. Back then the reality of the pair being executed seemed distant and improbable. But Indonesia's new president, Joko Widodo, is taking a hard line on drugs, and according to him, that meant clearing the backlog of condemned drug traffickers.

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Early this morning, Andrew and Myuran were among eight prisoners executed by firing squad.

Since his incarceration a decade ago, 33 year-old Myuran spent much his time painting. In 2012 his fledgling efforts attracted the attention of the Archibald Prize-winning painter, Ben Quilty, who became Myuran's mentor and helped to organise a prison art school. And as Ben recently wrote of his friend, "in my life I've only ever seen one other artist make this seismic progress at such a dizzying pace."

Myuran painted countless portraits of those around him. In light of the circumstances, we asked some artists to return the favour.

If you'd like to submit your own portrait of Andrew or Myuran, you can do so at austuff@vice.com with the subject line "Portraits of Andrew and Myuran".