From hundreds of entries, the shortlists of this year’s AIB Portrait Prize and AIB Young Portrait Prize have been announced by the National Gallery of Ireland. Roscommon artist Conor O’Connell has been shortlisted for the AIB Portrait Prize along with 25 other artists from across the country with Ómra, a work in oil on copper panel.
The AIB Portrait Prize shortlist includes painting, drawing, sculpture, video and photography demonstrating the breadth of contemporary Irish art. The winner of the AIB 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. Judges for the AIB Portrait Prize are: Hughie O’Donoghue, artist, painter and writer. Emer McGarry, Director of The Model, Sligo and Simon O’Connor, Director of the Museum of Literature Ireland.
The AIB Young Portrait Prize returns for its sixth year in 2024 as a showcase for the artistic talent of young people from across the island of Ireland. Five winners (one from each respective age category and an overall winner) will be selected from a shortlist of hundreds of entries from young people aged three to eighteen. Winners will receive a bespoke art box and a cash prize. The overall competition winner will be awarded a personalised wooden box of high-quality art materials and a cash prize of €500. All twenty shortlisted entrants will have their artwork professionally framed/prepared. This year’s AIB Young Portrait Prize judges are: Ashwin Chacko, author-illustrator and motivational speaker, Emmalene Blake, a visual street artist, renowned for their large-scale portraits and Sheena Barrett, Head of Research and Learning at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Exhibitions of the shortlisted works in both competitions run at the National Gallery of Ireland from 9 November 2024 – 9 March 2025. The winners of the Prizes will be announced at a ceremony held in the National Gallery of Ireland on 27 November 2024.
