Adam Portraiture Award and Exhibition

Tuesday, 17 June 2014 9:00 am
Sunday, 17 August 2014 5:00 pm

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Adam Portraiture Award and Exhibition
17 June, 2014 - 17 August, 2014
Long Gallery

The Adam Portraiture Award is an initiative of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pukena Whakaata, Wellington. The 2014 Adam Portraiture Award promotes the best of contemporary portrait painting from artists throughout New Zealand. Selected and judged by Dr Nicola Kalinsky, Director of The Barber Institute, UK, this exhibition spans a range of portraiture from intimate personal images to large scale works of more familiar subjects. The exhibition showcases 61 finalists selected from over 330 entries, 41 of which will be exhibited at the Pah Homestead.

A 23 year old unknown artist Henry Christian-Slane has beaten a number of older and more experienced painters to win this premier portrait award for 2014 with his portrait Tim.

Judge Nicola Kalinsky said of the winning portrait - This is talented, honest and direct work making you feel you want to spend more time with the subject. It has a renaissance feel to it, suggesting someone on the brink of wider adult experience, much like the painter himself. The work indicates a talent well beyond the years and experience of the artist and I’m sure we’ll hear a lot more of him.

Art runs in the family for winner Henry Christian-Slane. His father Chris Slane is the cartoonist for The Listener, and his mother is an Auckland artist. His Grandfather, New Zealand’s first Privacy Commissioner Sir Bruce Slane was an early supporter of his talent and last year commissioned his grandson to paint three portraits in order for him to finance a trip to the United Kingdom to study. It is one of these, a portrait of his cousin Tim, which won him the coveted award, making him the youngest-ever winner of this 14 year old award.