Call For Entries: The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award

Entries for the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award are now invited.

The award, a partnership between the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata and the Office of the Kiingitanga, was launched last month in honour of Kiingi Tuheitia to inspire a new generation of emerging Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna (ancestors).

Artists are given an opportunity to showcase their talent on a national stage while competing for a First Prize of $20,000. The Runner-Up and People's Choice Award provide $2,500 respectively.

Entries are open to emerging Māori artists who have either created an artwork within the last two years, or wish to create an artwork especially for the competition, using any visual medium, with whakapapa connections to the depicted tūpuna.

The finalist artworks will be judged by a distinguished panel comprising renowned artists at the opening of the exhibition. These include tohunga taa moko and kapa haka exponent Sir Derek Lardelli; celebrated artist, teacher and activist, Kura Te Waru Rewiri and artist Lisa Reihana, who is known around the world for her portraits and digital art.

Director of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Jaenine Parkinson, says the Award provides emerging Māori artists with the opportunity to showcase their talents on the national stage, while also playing an important role in recording and celebrating tūpuna (ancestors) and their stories.

The inaugural award will be held in 2021 with an exhibition of finalist artworks in Te Whanganui-a-Tara at The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, timed to coincide with Matariki. Finalist artworks will then tour the country.

Entries close on 5 March 2021 and the winners will be announced at the exhibition opening on 26 May 2021.

An information pack on how to enter is available to download from nzportraitgallery.org.nz/kiingituheitiaaward

#KiingiTuheitiaAward | #TaparatiaTeMahina = "let your light shine"

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