The Adam Portraiture Award is Aotearoa’s most prestigious and popular portraiture prize.
This biennial competition for painted portraits is held at The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata and generously sponsored by the Adam Foundation. The Adam Portraiture Award is a major touring exhibition which gives contemporary portrait artists the opportunity to have their work shown on the national stage. It plays an important role in recording the changing face of Aotearoa.
In 2026, we welcome Sydney-based artist Jude Rae as judge. Click here for the judge’s profile.
The exhibition of 43 finalists is on display at the NZ Portrait Gallery until 9 August, and will be followed by a nationwide tour. Exhibition visitors can vote for the $2,500 People’s Choice Award.
Opening night - video by Josiah Wood
What is Audio Description? Audio description increases accessibility for blind and low‑vision people by using words to describe visual information, like appearance, facial expression, and costumes. It is usually provided as a live or recorded narrated audio track that can accompany an experience.
Winner
Duncan Pepe Long
Solomon Tāmehana, 2026
Oil on wood
(Solomon Tāmehana)
“Duncan Pepe Long’s portrait of Solomon Tāmehana brings acute insight and a remarkably light touch to classical realism. The painter has placed Solomon in an interior that says much about him, but much more can be gleaned from direct characterisation: the mischievous side eye and informal stance, unseen hands stuffed in pockets. Tonal acuity, the artist’s subtle grasp of light, gives us a powerful sense of ambience and nothing is over stated here. In the best tradition of painting, less is definitely more.”
Runner up
Carol Bucknell
Rita in the Winter Gardens, 2025
Oil and cold wax medium on ply panel
(Rita Forde)
“Carol Bucknell’s portrait of her niece Rita is remarkable for its freshness of execution. There is an immediacy to the composition which is strongly abstract, skilfully integrating pictorial depth with texture, stencils and other declarations of painting as object. Characterisation is deceptively simple: in the words of the painter “the figure reveals as much about a person as the face”. This is definitely the case with Rita, who stands with all the certainty and vulnerability of a young woman with everything ahead of her. A most eloquent portrait.”
Highly Commended
Ilya Volykhine
Brett in a Blanket, 2026
Oil and mixed media on 360gsm Hahnemuhle paper
(Brett A’Court)
“There is something very satisfying about Ilya Volykhine’s portrait of Brett A’Court. The alliteration of the title enhances the affectionate humour of the painting, the idiosyncratic nature of which suggests to us a similar quality in the subject. It is a reminder that a sense of humanity is the primary aim of a portrait, and that likeness can be captured in ways other than literal representation.”
Honourable Mentions
Toni Armstrong
George, 2025
Oil on board
(George Andrews)
David Owain Jones
Esther reading, 2026
Oil on ACM panel
(Esther Deans)
Sacha Lees
Maid-to-Measure, 2026
Oils on woven tape measures
(Sacha Lees)
Jasmine Middlebrook
Right Here and Now, 2026
Oil on canvas
(Levi Windsor, Diane Arbuckle, Daisy Windsor, Milo Windsor, and Ryan Windsor)
Catalogue
The exhibition catalogue of the Adam Portraiture Award 2026.
Double spread of each finalists work with full page colour reproduction.