National Gallery of Ireland urges Kildare artists to enter Zurich Portrait and Young Portrait competitions

The National Gallery of Ireland is seeking applications from Kildare artists, children and young people for this year’s Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize from today.

For the Zurich Portrait Prize, the competition showcasing contemporary portraiture, the Gallery invites submissions from across the island of Ireland, and from Irish artists living abroad, while the Zurich Young Portrait Prize, now in its fourth year, is open to young people aged 18 and under. 

Sean Rainbird, Director of the National Gallery, said, "The Zurich Portrait Prize and the Zurich Young Portrait Prize at the National Gallery of Ireland continue to go from strength to strength.

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"Our aim is to encourage an interest in contemporary portraiture and we’re thrilled to have Zurich partnering with us once again as we do so.

He added: "This year, we look forwarding to learning about how artists and young people have been inspired in recent times as we welcome submissions from all age groups, from artists here in Ireland and Irish artists abroad."

Neil Freshwater, CEO of Zurich, also said: "Since 2018 Zurich has held the honour of supporting these competitions, which showcase talented artists of all ages from the island of Ireland and from Irish artists based abroad.

"We look forward each year to seeing that creativity and energy housed amongst the greatest artists in the National Gallery."

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FURTHER DETAILS

The Zurich Portrait Prize aims to encourage interest in contemporary portraiture and to showcase the National Portrait Collection at the National Gallery.

The winner of the Zurich Portrait Prize will receive a cash prize of €15,000 and will be commissioned to create a work for the national portrait collection, for which they will be awarded a further €5,000.

Two additional awards of €1,500 will be given to highly commended works. 

The Zurich Young Portrait Prize, which aims to foster and support creativity, originality and self-expression in children and young people returns for its fourth year in 2022.

The competition is split into four age categories and is open to young people of all abilities aged up to 18 from across the country. Winners in each age category and an overall winner will be chosen from a shortlist of 20 works: winners will receive a bespoke art box and a cash prize. 

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The closing date for entries to the Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize is 22 June 2022.  

Exhibitions featuring shortlisted works in both competitions run at the National Gallery of Ireland between 26 November 2022 and 2 April 2023. 

The exhibitions will then travel to Donegal where they will run at Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny from 3 June 2023 to 2 September 2023. This is the first time that the competition exhibitions will be on display in Ulster.

Highly commended artists and an overall winner for the Zurich Portrait Prize, as well as category winners and an overall winner for the Zurich Young Portrait Prize, will be announced in early December 2022, after the exhibitions have opened at the Gallery.

Find out more at www.nationalgallery.ie.