Final Call For Entries For 2023 Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award

The country’s only portraiture award to inspire a new generation of Māori artists is now calling for final entries for the biennial competition, with the deadline for submission on 23 March 2023.

New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata together with The Office of the Kiingitanga launched the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award in August 2020 to motivate emerging Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna (ancestors).

Artists are given an opportunity to showcase their talent on a national stage while competing for a First Prize of $20,000. The Runner-Up and People's Choice Award provide $2,500 respectively.

Entries are open to emerging Māori artists who have either created an artwork within the last two years, or wish to create an artwork especially for the competition, using any visual medium, with whakapapa connections to the depicted tūpuna.

The finalist artworks will be judged by a distinguished panel comprising renowned artists at the opening of the exhibition. These include Māori multi-disciplinary, portrait artist Graham Hoete aka "Mr G" (Ngati Awa, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Ranginui), Māori researcher, artist, arts educator and curator, Steve Gibbs, and artist Lisa Reihana, who is known around the world for her portraits and digital art.

Commentating on the award, judge Graham Hoete aka "Mr G" says the award is a huge opportunity for a lot of young Māori artists to tell their indigenous story through portraiture.

“Sometimes Māori can feel a bit intimated in the arts space, so this is another way providing an avenue for young artists to feel comfortable and tell their story the way they want to tell it. What makes us indigenous, especially as artists, is the fact that we are connected to the stories that we are telling - for me that is the key.

Hoete, who is working on a range of projects, including an exhibition dedicated to Māori prophets, is honoured to be part of the judging panel for 2023.

“It’s a real privilege to be involved in this competition alongside Lisa and Steve. For me, I come with my own lens and kind of learning that I are of interest to me. I come from a non-traditional trained background being self-taught and as a full-time artist for 19 years I have had to carve out my own path as an artist. In saying that, I have achieved some things you can’t really achieve any other way by taking risks and pure passion. I will be looking at the integrity and purity of art and people’s ability to share and tell their stories the way they want to tell them.”

An information pack on how to enter is available to download from nzportraitgallery.org.nz/kiingituheitiaaward.

Entries close on 23 March 2023 and the winners will be announced at the exhibition opening on Wednesday 24 May 2023.

© Scoop Media