Now in its sixth year, the annual Portrait Prize at the National Gallery of Ireland demonstrates the breadth of contemporary Irish art…
The AIB Portrait Prize has been running for six years and includes painting, drawing, sculpture, video and photography, demonstrating the breadth of contemporary Irish art.
There are always hundreds of entries for this popular competition, which this year have been judged by artist and writer Hughie O’Donoghue, Emer McGarry, Director of The Model, Sligo and Simon O’Connor, Director of the Museum of Literature Ireland.
The winner of the 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 shortlist of entries features 26 artists who worked across a variety of media. An exhibition of their work will run at the National Gallery of Ireland from November 9 November to March 9 next year. The winners of the prizes will be announced at a ceremony held in the Gallery on November 27 November. Here’s a preview of the works:
Caolán Barron (Wexford), Isabella Gerbola, Circus Gerbola, Tramore, 2023, photograph
Harriet Casey (Meath), Are You Sitting Comfortably?, oil on canvas
Shane Coughlan (Dublin), Róisín Dubh, photograph on photo rag paper
David Creedon (Cork), Miss Evans in her Sweetshop, photograph
Philip Thomas Crean (Dublin), 64, photograph
Lorraine Dunne (Westmeath), Aoife on Dollymount, oil on canvas
Amanda Dunsmore (Clare), Lydia, Dr Lydia Foy, 2022, filmed video portrait, silent, 18 mins
Ellius Grace (Dublin), Shane MacGowan At Home, 2021, photograph
David Hamilton (Armagh), The Family Bowles and The Fiscal Black Hole, acrylic on canvas
Neil-Jack (Alphonsus) Hamilton (Donegal), Jennifer McShane, oil on canvas
Gearóid Arthur Hayes (Limerick), Kwena Chokoe, oil on board
Beverley Healy (Antrim), Sibling Travellers, mixed media (egg tempera, oil and acrylic) on panel
Markela Iacovou (Dublin), 10.07.1980, photograph edited in photoshop and illustrator, digital printing on canvas and manual work with hagiography pigments and caustic liquid
Robert Jackson (Dublin), Beth in Low Light, oil on roughened brass plate
Joy Kavanagh (Cork), Self-subject; In bloom, acrylic on wooden boards
Martin Maguire (Louth), GameBoy, oil on canvas
Arann McCormack (Wicklow), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, photograph
Emily McGardle (Monaghan), The Pox, coloured pencil and pen on paper
Laurence J McMahon (Dublin), Mary Lou McDonald President of Sinn Féin, photograph
Conor O’Connell (Roscommon), Ómra, oil on copper panel
Darragh O’Connell (Wexford), John and Fionnán, oil on canvas
Mick O’Dea (Clare), Fergus Martin, oil on canvas
Cara Rose (Dublin), Ailbhe and Michelle, coloured pencil on mounted paper
Kevin Sharkey (Dublin), Robyn, photograph
Robert Stothard (Leitrim), Carl in the Box Room, photograph
Michael Wann (Sligo), Camille, charcoal on paper
