Esther Erlich
(née Migdalek)

MAC.ROB Student, 1970-1973
PORTRAIT GALLERY INDUCTEE, 2008
ARTIST

Esther Erlich had her first solo exhibition in Melbourne in 1983 at Young Originals Gallery. She has since had 51 solo exhibitions for catalogue and 74 group shows. In 1993 Esther had her first overseas exhibition in Japan at the Kyushu Municipal Art Gallery. She has since exhibited in Hong Kong at Bark Modern Art at the Delhi Australian High Commission. In 2015 Esther exhibited in “Pain/ting” curated by Juan Arata at Open Walls Gallery in Berlin. That same year she also exhibited in the New York Art Fair with Panter and Hall (London) who represents her. More recently she exhibited in the 2020 LA art show USA (Booth #737) with Panter and Hall.

In 2001 Esther was invited to exhibit in the National Tour of Portraits 2001 – An Australian Odyssey, and in December her work was exhibited at the Victorian Arts Centre as the Artwork of the Month. In March 2005, Esther was one of three artists curated in the Lost and Found Curators and Artists display of the Women’s Art Register shown at Federation Square, Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Spaces and the RMIT Gallery. In 2020 Fox Galleries (Melbourne) published a catalogue of Esther’s exhibition “An Intimate Distance” which was featured at the Art Book Fair NGV.

Esther won the Archibald People’s Choice Award in 2000 (both in Melbourne and Sydney) with Never Been Better, her portrait of Bill Leak, and has been selected as a finalist on four occasions. She also won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 1998 with Gaunt and Glorious, her portrait of Steve Moneghetti. She has been selected for this prize on three other occasion.

In 2007, Esther was a finalist in the Dobell Prize, the Whyalla Art Prize (SA) and the Hutchins Art Prize (Tasmania). She has been a finalist in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and the Banyule Works on Paper Award. She has also been selected as a finalist for many other national prizes including the 2022 Darling Portrait Prize (National Gallery Canberra), the Portia Geach Memorial Award, Dobell Prize, Paul Guest Drawing award.

Esther’s work is in private collections, both in Australia and overseas, as well as in the public collections of the National Portrait Gallery, Tweed Valley Regional Art Gallery, National Library ACT, Holocaust Museum Victoria, ALP Building Canberra, Royal Overseas League (Australian Collection), Performing Arts Museum (Victorian Arts Centre), Council for Adult Education and Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School.