This Portrait of a Child Soldier Turned Lawyer Has Won the Archibald People's Choice

A portrait of former Sudanese child soldier Deng Adut has won this year’s 2016 Archibald Prize People’s Choice Award. It took Sydney artist Nick Stathopoulos four months to complete the painstakingly photorealistic painting—the most time he’s ever spent on one artwork.

Smuggled out of Sudan to Australia in 1998, Adut is now a practicing immigration lawyer and refugee advocate working in Blacktown. The former child soldier was trained to use an AK-47 at the age of six; he rose to fame when Western Sydney University, where he received his law degree, posted an inspirational video telling his story.

It was through this video that Adut came to the attention of Stathopoulos, who is an Archibald prize veteran. This is his fifth time being a finalist in the lucrative portrait prize, but the first time he’s won the People’s Choice Award, worth $3500. He received the most votes from gallery goers at the Art Gallery of New South Wales visiting the Archibald Prize finalists exhibition—the actual Archibald Prize was won earlier this year by Melbourne artist Louise Hearman, for her portrait of Barry Humphries.

Speaking at the prize announcement today, Stathopoulos said he was honoured the public had chosen his work as their favourite—and that their opinion might mean more than that of art critics. “"I don’t think we give the general public enough credit when it comes to matters of art. In my experience they are very clued-in,” he said.

“And when it comes to the Archibald Prize People’s Choice Award, they seem to get it right every year.”

The verdict from Stathopoulos’ subject? The painting might be a little too good.

“It must be some sort of magic, but Nick really captured what’s underneath my skin in his painting,” Adut said at the prize announcement today. “It can be hard for me to look at—not least because my nose looks so big!”

You can find out more about this year’s Archibald Prize here.

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