Sacha Lees, Sometimes an outline coloured in, Vivienne Still, Engage; Gwyn Hughes, Stig and the Taniwha.

30 October – 6 December 2020
Long Gallery

The Adam Portraiture Award is a biennial competition for painted portraits of New Zealanders, by New Zealanders and presents a breadth of responses to identity and representation.

This year, our judges – Karen Quinlan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, and Linda Tyler, convenor of Museums and Cultural Heritage at the University of Auckland – selected finalists from a record number of entries, and from these an overall winner and runner-up were chosen.

Winner of the 2020 Adam Portraiture Award:
Sacha Lees for Sometimes an outline coloured in

Runner-up:
Vivienne Still for Engage

Highly Commended:
Marcus Ebbett for Marcus
Stephen Lawrie for Friday after work with Emma
Duncan Pepe Long for DAVID
Lisa Munnelly for Stephen
Todd Simpson for Screwed up – A Self-Portrait

People’s Choice Award:
Gwyn Hughes for Stig and the Taniwha 

“Portraiture is an enduring theme for artists. The human face will always reward scrutiny. This year there were very few full body portraits and a large number of head and shoulder depictions of subjects with just a handful of artists’ self-portraits.

While many artists have clearly relied on photographs of their subjects to gain the greatest verisimilitude, some of the most remarkable works used summary or gestural means to represent the sitter’s facial features.

From the 373 entries, it was a challenge to reduce down to the 50 works for the exhibition of finalists. The judges were struck by the way in which many of the artists were able to communicate both national characteristics and the unique aspects of Aotearoa’s indigenous culture.”

— Judges' comments