Call For Entries: The Adam Portraiture Award 2026

New Zealand’s longest running portraiture award increases top prize to $30,000

Entries are now open for the 2026 Adam Portraiture Award, New Zealand’s premier prize for painted portraiture, presented by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata and generously supported by The Adam Foundation. Artists from across Aotearoa are invited to pick up their brushes, connect with a subject, and create work that captures the essence of a living New Zealander.

Now one of the country’s longest running and most respected art prizes, the Adam Portraiture Award offers artists the opportunity to gain national recognition, a place in a major touring exhibition, and a chance to win the newly increased first prize of $30,000.

“We’re proud to support the Adam Portraiture Award as a platform for artists to engage deeply with their subjects and share powerful painted stories of New Zealanders,” says Brian Wood, Director of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata. “We are especially grateful to the Adam Foundation, for their continued generosity in increasing the winner’s prize from $20,000 to $30,000.”

Artists entering the 2026 Adam Portraiture Award must be New Zealand citizens or residents, and all entries must be predominantly painted - including mediums such as oil, acrylic, watercolour or pastel - and completed after 21 March 2024.

This year’s Award also introduces a significant update to its entry criteria: all submitted works must be painted portraits of living New Zealanders and must be based on at least one live sitting or study from life. This emphasis on direct, in-person engagement encourages artists to forge a deeper connection with their subject, allowing for closer observation and the chance to capture the presence, character, and essence of the individual with immediacy and authenticity.

Another major development for 2026 is the re-introduction of an international guest judge to select all finalists and winners - a move that brings a clear, unified curatorial perspective to the award. The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata is pleased to announce that Jude Rae, an internationally acclaimed painter known for her masterful portraits and still life’s, will serve as the sole judge for this year’s competition.

“Aotearoa New Zealand has been very kind to me over the years, and I consider it to be my second home,” says Jude Rae, whose work is held in major institutions across Australia and New Zealand. “Ideally a portrait is a close encounter that reveals something essential about both the subject and the artist. This is a great honour for me and I am looking forward to encountering the variety, integrity and imagination that New Zealand artists bring to the ancient and complex genre of painting”.

Jude Rae is the 2025 winner of the prestigious Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and has received multiple accolades including being highly commended in the Archibald Prize in 2019, 2021, and 2022.

The winner of the competition and recipient of a $30,000 cash prize will be selected by the judge at the start of the public exhibition showcasing all finalists’ works at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery and. An additional prize of $2,500 will be awarded for the runner up alongside another $2,500 prize for the People’s Choice, awarded at the end of the Adam Portraiture Award exhibition.

Entries close at 4pm on Wednesday 18 March 2026, finalists will be announced in April 2026 and the winner will be announced on 20 May 2026. The exhibition will run at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakata in Shed 11 on Wellington’s waterfront from 21 May – 9 August 2026. The exhibition will tour nationally after closing in Wellington.

Entry forms and full conditions of entry are available at: www.nzportraitgallery.org.nz/adam-portraiture-award

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