From hundreds of entries, the shortlists of this year’s Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize have been announced by the National Gallery of Ireland, with one Louth artist making the shortlist.

26 artists, working across a variety of media, have made it through to the final stage of the Zurich Portrait Prize, while 20 young artists aged between four and eighteen years old have been shortlisted for the Zurich Young Portrait Prize.

From Louth, Solomon Doyle has made the shortlist for his Portrait of an Artist: A Reflection of His Ensuing Self, oil, acrylic & gold pen on canvas

The Zurich Portrait Prize shortlist includes painting, sculpture and photography, demonstrating the breadth of contemporary Irish art. The winner of the Zurich Portrait Prize will receive a cash prize of €15,000 and will be commissioned to create a work for the national portrait collection, for which they will be awarded a further €5,000.

Two additional awards of €1,500 will be given to highly commended works. Judges for the Zurich Portrait Prize are Dorothy Cross RHA, artist, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, and Anne Stewart, Senior Curator of Art, National Museums Northern Ireland.

The Zurich Young Portrait Prize returns for its fifth year in 2023 as a showcase for the artistic talent of young people from across the island of Ireland. Five winners (one from each respective age category and an overall winner) will be selected from a shortlist of hundreds of entries from young people aged four to 18.

Winners will receive a bespoke art box and a cash prize. The overall competition winner will be awarded a personalised wooden box of high-quality art materials and a cash prize of €500.

All twenty shortlisted entrants will have their artwork professionally framed/prepared. This year’s Zurich Young Portrait Prize judges are: Jessica O’Donnell, Head of Education and Community Outreach, Hugh Lane Gallery, Ola Majekodunmi, writer, broadcaster and producer, and Tom McLean, visual artist and curator.

Exhibitions of the shortlisted works in both competitions run at the National Gallery of Ireland from 2 December 2023 and 10 March 2024.