Artist Daniel Nelis’s portrait of his wife, Andrea, has won the National Gallery of Ireland’s AIB Portrait Prize.
Nelis was among 26 shortlisted artists from the island of Ireland working across a variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, video and photography, whose art is currently on display in the gallery.
The portrait, titled Late Spring, was painted in the months before the artist’s marriage.
“The painting does not seek to sentimentalise our relationship, but to bear witness through an intimate and intrusive lens, with elements such as the fabrics and heather rendered with the same scrutiny as the figure,” Nelis said.
READ MORE
He added that such “moments of quiet reflection, experienced in the vivid reality of the present” were of the greatest interest to his work.
The winner of the annual competition receives €15,000 in cash and will be commissioned to create a work for the national portrait collection, for which they will be awarded a further €5,000.
There are also be two other awards of €1,500 for John Foley and Conor O’Leary, whose entries were highly commended. The panel of judges for this year’s prize included Gareth Reid, Emily Mark-FitzGerald and Dr Barbara Dawson.
Guorui Sui (11) was selected as the overall winner of the AIB Young Portrait Prize for his work My Own World of Fantasy.
Guorui said: “This self portrait captures me in my happy place – surrounded by my favourite toys, away from the real world where not everything goes your way.
“I’m 11, nearing those ‘teenage years’ everyone talks about. I know the ‘grown-up’ world is coming, with its complexities and worries. So I’m soaking up every last bit of being a kid.”
The shortlist for this year’s young portrait prize was judged by a panel including Cian O’Brien, Neil-Jack Alphonsus Hamilton and Alice Rekab.
Rohan Agrawal (6), Michael Ryan (10), Jiayi Sun (15) and Jill Tritschler (18) were announced as the category winners.
Guorui received a €500 cash prize and a box of art materials, while the category winners were each awarded their own box of supplies and €250.
All 26 shortlisted entries across both prizes will remain on exhibit in the gallery until March 15th, 2026.
