Lewis Miller, Portrait of Graeme Drendel II. Oil on Belgian linen, 172 x 182cm. Courtesy: the artist,  Australian Galleries, Sydney and Melbourne, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, and S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney.

The Salon des Refusés was initiated by the S.H. Ervin Gallery in 1992 in response to the large number of works entered into the Archibald Prize which were not selected for display in the official exhibition.

Each year S.H. Ervin Gallery’s panel is invited to go behind the scenes of the judging process for the annual Archibald Prize for portraiture and Wynne Prize for landscape painting and figure sculpture at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, to select an exhibition from the many hundreds of works entered in both prizes but not chosen for the official award exhibition.