Andrew Mezei (b. 1963), artist, was born to Hungarian refugee parents in Melbourne and grew up in their leather-goods workshop, observing their adherence to a tradition of fine European craftsmanship. He obtained a bachelor of fine art from RMIT in 1983, and later studied old master techniques under Richard Clements. His painting is informed by science and emotionally charged by a view of the world as teetering on the edge of ecological destruction. Following Dutch masters' techniques from the Baroque period, Mezei incorporates fine and rare pigments, resins and oils into his painting, and grinds most of his own colours. He has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize twice, with his portraits of Professor Penny Sackett (2011), now in the National Portrait Gallery, and Professor Kate Leslie (2014). He was a finalist in the Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize and highly commended in the John Leslie Art Prize in 2006, winning in 2008. Mezei held his first exhibition at the Catherine Asquith Gallery in 2010 and three years later the Gippsland Art Gallery held a solo show of his post-apocalyptic landscapes titled The Darkest Prospect. In 2021 he was commissioned to paint politician Lady Millie Peacock's portrait for the Parliament of Victoria.
