Anita Lester, a multidisciplinary artist from Melbourne, Australia, navigates the vast landscapes of music, painting, filmmaking, poetry, and illustration with a singular precision that echoes through each of her works. Known not only for her outcomes in every genre she touches, her art stands as a testament to the power of storytelling, woven with threads of longing, loss, hope, and the enduring pulse of Jewish tradition.
After years on the road with the rock outfit Lester The Fierce, in March 2020, Anita unveiled her debut solo EP Erato. Although the release coincided with a world closing in on itself, the songs found their way, with tracks like "Wrong Time" and her haunting rendition of Leonard Cohen’s "You Want it Darker" resonating deeply, the latter finding a home in film and television, including The Walking Dead. Leonard Cohen himself, before departing this world, had praised her for a cover that carried the weight of a final prayer.
In 2021, she released "Sun and Moon and Stars," a collaboration with the Australian troubadours Husky, followed by "Sacred Heart" and "Earthly Desire" from her debut album The Clown, which emerged in March 2023. Crafted in the quiet aftermath of a world temporarily paused, the album is a meditation on the death of a dream, shaped by her musical heroes-Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Carole King, and Kate Bush.
Her award winning 2017 short film Noch Am Leben (I’m Still Alive) journeyed through more than fifty film festivals, marking its place in the collective memory of a global audience, including selections in Oscar-qualifying competitions. The film, a meditation on Holocaust trauma, is now housed in the permanent collections of Holocaust museums, from Yad Vashem to the new Melbourne Holocaust Museum, continuing its quiet dialogue with history.
In 2023, Screen Australia and Jump Street Films announced Anita’s debut feature film, Song of Songs, with Jamie Bialkower producing and Shekhar Kapur lending his visionary support as executive producer. In 2024 Deadline Hollywood announced her involvement in a collection of films slated for production, including her second film in development ‘The White Pigeon’.
Anita’s art defies easy categorization. Her paintings, irreverent and mythical, blend technical precision with a sense of timeless wonder. Her work in The Seven Palaces of Breath: The Mysteries of the Flying Hobbler and her folkloric Yiddish collection Farmacopeia, celebrating its 100th anniversary after originally being illustrated by Chagall, exemplify this. To mark the occasion, Farmacopeia launched in tandem with a Chagall exhibition at the Australian Jewish Museum.
Her official portrait of Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers garnered praise from critics and fellow artists alike, from Patti Smith to Cat Power. In February 2023, her first painting in a series of portraits of Holocaust survivors was unveiled, featuring Abram Goldberg OAM, with the series earning critical recognition even in its early stages, leading her to be commissioned by the Melbourne Holocaust Museum to create another 15 portraits of Survivors for a 2025/26 exhibition.
In addition to her visual work, Anita, with Text Publishing released Arnold Zabel’s children’s book The Glass Horse of Venice, in September 2024.
At the heart of Anita’s work is her poetry, with words scattered across more than a dozen books. Her collection accompanying Erato, including the much-publicized Ode to Oz, reflects a voice always in conversation with the world- full of sorrow and laughter, love and despair, grounded always in the intricate tapestry of Jewish culture.