Join us on the opening day of the 2026 Adam Portraiture Award for a talk from this years judge Jude Rae.

Jude Rae is a Sydney based artist known for her still life paintings, portraits and architectural interiors. The low key, non-narrative imagery she employs allows the attention to dwell on the formal and material aspects of representational painting, encouraging a more reflective and considered approach to the complexities of visual experience.

In 2005 and 2008 Jude won the Portia Geach Memorial Award for Portraiture and was Highly Commended in the Archibald Prize in 2019, 2021 and 2022. Over the last two decades she has undertaken significant portrait commissions in Australia and New Zealand including the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, the Federal Parliament of Australia, the High Court of Australia.

Jude is the 2025 winner of the prestigious Wynne Prize for landscape painting or figure sculpture at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.

“Aotearoa New Zealand has been very kind to me over the years and I consider it to be my second home. Ideally a portrait is a close encounter that reveals something essential about both the subject and the artist. This is a great honour for me and I am looking forward to encountering the variety, integrity and imagination that New Zealand artists bring to the ancient and complex genre of portrait painting”.

For more, visit: www.juderae.com

Access information: The New Zealand Portrait Gallery is an accessible venue, all on one level. There is an accessible wharepaku (toilet) at the back of the venue. The gallery has automatic sliding doors and glass doors that can be pushed or pulled to enter. We have a wheelchair available for use within the gallery, and there is low stool seating throughout. You can find more accessibility information here. If you have any questions regarding accessibility or if there is something we could do to make your visit easier, please get in touch.