A Clare artist has been shortlisted for this year’s Zurich Portrait Prize at the National Gallery of Ireland. Gráinne Moloney’s work Girl with Hen will be on display at the Gallery later this year.
From hundreds of entries, 24 artists made it through to the final stage of the Zurich Portrait Prize, while 20 young artists aged between five and eighteen years old have been shortlisted for the Zurich Young Portrait Prize.
The winner of the Zurich 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 Zurich Portrait Prize are: artist Eamonn Doyle; Róisín Kennedy, art critic and Lecturer/Assistant Professor in the School of Art History & Cultural Policy, UCD; and Seán Kissane, Curator at IMMA.
The Zurich Young Portrait Prize returns for its third year in 2021. Five winners (one from each age category and an overall winner) will be selected from a shortlist of hundreds of entries by children and young people aged up to 18 from across the island of Ireland. Winners will receive a bespoke art box and a cash prize. This year’s Zurich Young Portrait Prize judges are: visual artist Aideen Barry; artist, art teacher and activist Joe Caslin; and Tadhg Crowley, Senior Curator: Education + Community at the Glucksman.
Exhibitions of shortlisted works in both competitions run at the National Gallery of Ireland between 13 November 2021 and 3 April 2022. The exhibition will travel to Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, where it will be displayed between 23 April and 17 July 2022.
Sean Rainbird, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, said, “The Zurich Portrait Prizes at the National Gallery of Ireland continue to go from strength to strength. Our aim is to encourage interest in and excitement about contemporary portraiture, and we’re thrilled to have Zurich partnering with us once again as we do so. A terrific selection of works has been shortlisted this year for both competitions, and we look forward to the exhibitions later this year at the Gallery and next year in Crawford Art Gallery in Cork.”
Neil Freshwater, CEO of Zurich, said, “After such extraordinary competitions and exhibitions in 2020, Zurich are delighted to see another impressive selection of works in this year’s shortlist. The Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize exhibitions are a highlight of the cultural calendar and we are very proud to continue to sponsor these competitions and to support Irish talent of all ages, now more than ever.”
Find out more at www.nationalgallery.ie.