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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

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Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2023

Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2023

Previous exhibition
from Saturday 25 March until Sunday 21 May 2023

We were absolutely delighted with every single entry we received. Thank you to everyone who entered, you really did make it extremely difficult! In the end, National Portrait Gallery judges Sandra Bruce Director, Collection and Exhibitions, Krysia Kitch Manager, Learning Programs, and Maxine Beneba Clarke, Author selected 12 portraits from over 190 entries. A big congratulations to all the finalists!

For those of you that don’t know, Little Darlings is for primary and secondary students, with four separate categories across Kindergarten to Year 12. For the 2023 prize, we asked them to respond to the theme ‘Me and my place’ by painting, drawing, photographing, printing or combining all of these to make their portrait.

The Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2023 is generously supported by Jillian Broadbent AC, Dr Helen Nugent AC, Alan Dodge AM, Hugo Michell, Penny Fowler, Yasmin Allen, Stuart Wood AM KC, Tim Bednall, Nigel Satterley AM & Denise Satterley.

Finalists age 5–7

1 Claire De Fries Me and my dream cat 2022. 2 Emily Ma Me and My Place 2023. 3 Mia Vucetic Me and My Memories 2022.

Finalists age 8–11

1 Felicity V. Corso Erin Colours (FINALISTS AGE 8–11) 2022. This portrait is of my best friend Erin. Erin is calmly holding my dog, posing comfortably, waiting for me to take the perfect photo in the morning sun before she leaves. Spending time with Erin is one of my happy places. Erin reminds me of happiness even in hard situations and positivity is around wherever I go. I admire how Erin finds this way of being so easy. I love Erin’s colourful personality, which at times reminds me of myself. The blobs in the background represent all the colour, excitement and joy filling me up whenever I am with her. 2 Azlin Gibson Me, alone 2022. 3 Logan Martinuzzo Logan 2022. 4 Ewan So The Medallist, Self portrait 2022.

Finalists age 12–15

1 Georgia Bretherton Self-Portrait 2022. 2 Ting Jiang Through the Eyes of my Family 2022. 3 Perri Lawson Destination Dissociation 2022.

Finalists age 16–18

1 Malakaii Lewis Home 2022. 2 Chloe Yongqing Zheng Wonder 2022.

Entries for the Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2024 are now open.

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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

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