Melbourne-based painter Richard Lewer has failure down to a fine art, scooping up the $100,000 Basil Sellers Art Prize for his work on sporting defeats, after three unsuccessful entries.
Lewer was announced as the winner of the biennial sport-themed prize at the University of Melbourne's Ian Potter Museum of Art on Friday, beating 240 other entrants for his compilation of 12 paintings entitled The Theatre of Sports.
The New Zealand-born boxing coach and artist, who was a finalist in 2008, 2010 and 2014, says he was inspired by the psychological pressure placed on sportspeople "to be the very best that they can be".
His winning oil-on-canvas work features Australian sports stars including tennis player Nick Kyrgios and athlete Sally Pearson in mid-match and post-race moments of disbelief.
"It's not always the glorified people with the trophies above their hands. I like the other sort of back story," he told AAP.
"You've got macho footy players holding each other and crying.
"It's exposure in its rawest form."
Lewer said he will put the "overwhelming" prize money towards an extension of his Northcote home after years of working alongside up to 40 artists in crowded Melbourne studios.
"I've got one goal and it's a dream that I've always had and that's to build my own studio," he said.
Ian Potter Museum of Art director, Kelly Gellatly, commended Lewer for capturing the vulnerability of Australian sports stars and their ability to cope "in the immediate aftermath of loss".
The six-person judging panel included sports-mad philanthropist Basil Sellers AM, with a $5000 Peoples' Choice award to be decided by gallerygoers before the exhibition ends on November 6.
