New Zealand Portrait Gallery

02/06/2026

Join us for an audio‑described tour of this year’s Adam Portrait Award.

Saturday 20 June at 11am

Thank you to Audio Described Aotearoa to providing us with the transcripts for this live audio described session. This session is free but bookings are essential.

For more info or to book please follow the link - https://www.nzportraitgallery.org.nz/public-programmes/2026/ad-tour

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.

Can't make it in person? The audio descriptions provided by Audio Described Aotearoa are available at anytime on our web page.

[Image: Stephen Lawrie, Fishermen - The painter and his sons, 2026. Oil on unstretched canvas. This black and white acrylic painting shows three men in the wheelhouse of a fishing boat, all looking out at the viewer. On the right of the painting is an older manwith white shoulder length hair and a neat white beard. He’s in a dark kersey and leans an arm on a surface beside the wooden wheel. To the left are two smiling younger men with similar features, both have faint stubble beards and wear raincoats over dark woollen jerseys. The one on the left has a cap. There’s a clear bag of little fish spilling out across the rounded table in front of them and three metal fish lures hanging by their hooks from the raised table edge. Above their heads are radios and tannoys, there’s a big screen behind the wheel that’s blank, and outside the windows behind them, grey could scud across the seascape and distant islands.]

31/05/2026

"Known for hits including Sophie and Fiji Baby, Rodney Fisher has turned his attention to another side of his creative life as a visual artist."

Rodney Fisher has turned his attention to another side of his creative life as a visual artist.

29/05/2026

“It still feels pretty surreal. When I was told, I had to go straight into teaching a class of 50 students, so I didn’t really have time to process it. I’ve attended four of the exhibition openings, and even the Highly Commended Award I received previously was a real thrill — but this time it was an incredible adrenaline rush.”

28/05/2026

Join us this Saturday for our Themed Monthly Life Drawing session. We’ll be taking inspiration from several Adam Portraiture Award 2026 finalists: Tony Guo, Emma Hercus and David Owain Jones. Their portraits show sitters absorbed in a good book, and our model will be bringing that same energy to the session.

We’ll be drawing from 2 to 4 pm. Please arrive a little early to set yourself up. Thankyou to Almighty for providing us with tasty inu (drinks) to keep us hydrated throughout the session.

This is a koha event. The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata is an independent gallery that relies on grants and private donations, so if you’re able to contribute, your support is appreciated.

Images all cropped.
Tony Guo, Xin reading a book, 2025. Oil on linen. (Xin Ji)
David Owain Jones, Esther reading, 2026. Oil on ACM panel. (Esther Deans)
Emma Hercus, Home, 2026. Acrylic and oil on wood panel. (Emma Hercus, Stewart Hercus, Ivy Hercus, Peter Hercus, Frederick Hercus)

27/05/2026

Join us this Saturday 30 May at 11am for a talk from 'only connect: Portraits by Joanna Margaret Paul and Janet Elaine Paul' curator Helen Kedgley.

Currently working as a freelance curator and Trustee, Helen Kedgley was Director of Pataka in Porirua City from 2012 until November 2015 and then Acting Director of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in 2016. Prior to that she was Senior Curator and Arts Manager at Pataka, and has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art. In 2015 Helen was granted a Distinguished Alumni Award from Victoria University, Wellington. She is a Trustee of the NZ Portrait Gallery and the Wellington Sculpture Trust. She was a Member of the Board of Creative New Zealand from 2010 – 2014. A graduate of Victoria University, Massey University, the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts and the Ecole du Louvre in Paris, her international museum work includes the Science Museum, Oxford, England and The National Gallery of Zimbabwe. As a painter Helen has participated in numerous exhibitions in France, England, India and Zimbabwe.

'only connect: Portraits by Joanna Margaret Paul and Janet Elaine Paul' is showing until Sunday 7 June.

[Images:
1. Credit Mark Tantrum Photography
2. Install shots with works from 'Only Connect: Portraits by Joanna Margaret Paul and Janet Elaine Paul' pictured. Photographer: Catherine Adam.]

27/05/2026

"Copeland’s finalist work, Facing Behavioural Variant Fronto-temporal Dementia, draws directly from her professional life as a geriatric psychiatrist."

Dr Bronwyn Copeland is one of 43 finalists chosen from 429 entries.

25/05/2026

"The call came in on a Wellington number. Self-taught Auckland artist Duncan Pepe Long knew he should probably call back. He was asked to sit down, told he'd won Aotearoa's most prestigious portraiture award, and then had to go and stand in front of 25 students and pretend nothing had happened."

The call came in on a Wellington number. Self-taught Auckland artist Duncan Pepe Long knew he should probably call back. He was asked to sit down, told he'd won Aotearoa's most prestigious portraiture award, and then had to go and stand in front of 25 students and pretend nothing had happened. His w...

23/05/2026

"The prestigious $30,000 Adam Portraiture Award has been won by Duncan Pepe Long, an Auckland-based teacher, painter and printmaker, who entered the contest with a work featuring his friend of more than two decades."

The prestigious, $30,000 Adam Portraiture Award has been won by Duncan Pepe Long, an Auckland-based teacher, painter and printmaker, who entered the contest with a work featuring his friend of more than two decades.

22/05/2026

"Duncan Pepe Long, 48, has been a finalist in the biennial Adam Portraiture Award competition five times before finally winning this year."

His oil painting won over hundreds of entries, including a portrait on a fake fingernail.

20/05/2026

And a huge congratulations to the rest of this years prize winners!

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.”
— Judge's comment

HONORABLE MENTION

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)

The 2026 Adam Portraiture Award Exhibtion of all 42 finalists works is now open! Come and visit us down at Shed 11 on the Wellington Waterfront or view all the finalists works online via our website https://www.nzportraitgallery.org.nz/exhibitions/2026/the-adam-portraiture-award-2026