The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial prize for Australian portrait painting which honours the legacy of L Gordon Darling AC CMG (1921-2015), founding patron of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.
Judges will be seeking the most compelling recent Australian portrait painting, whether they honour or push the genre, offer unexpected insights into well-known faces, or centre everyday people to explore the breadth of Australian identity.
To be eligible, the work must meet the following criteria:
- a painting
- completed on or after 31 January 2022
- depicts a person or persons having a strong association with Australia, or who has made a significant contribution to Australian life
- is based on a live sitting or study from life (including online sittings).
To be eligible, the artist must meet the following criteria at the time the online entry is submitted:
- an Australian citizen or a resident of Australia
- 18 years or over.
It is free to enter the Prize.
The Gallery is committed to supporting artists involved in the Prize. Each selected finalist will receive:
- an artist fee of $1,200
- a copyright and image licensing fee of $1,000
- domestic artwork freight allowance to and from the Gallery
- domestic travel allowance and accommodation in Canberra for the exhibition launch.
In 2024, the winner will receive a prize of $75,000. All finalist artworks will be exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery from 22 June to 13 October 2024.
Entries close on 31 January 2024.
Judges
This year the prize will be judged by Bree Pickering, Director, National Portrait Gallery; Erin Vink, Curator First Nations Art (local and global), Art Gallery of New South Wales and Tara Heffernan, Art Historian and Critic.
Bree Pickering, Erin Vink (Photo: Anna Kucera), Tara Heffernan
