The National Gallery of Ireland and Crawford Art Gallery are delighted to announce a continuation of their partnership for the Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize exhibitions. Earlier this year, the portraiture exhibitions travelled to a second venue outside of Dublin when the 2019 shortlists were displayed in Crawford Art Gallery from January 2020.
This year’s Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize competitions are now open for entries, with artists and young people invited to submit their portraits before 1 July 2020. Shortlisted works from both competitions will be displayed in the National Gallery of Ireland 21 November 2020 to 21 March 2021. The exhibitions will then travel to Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, where they will run from 17 April – 11 July 2021.
Sean Rainbird, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, said: “We are committed to growing the national footprint of the Gallery and are thrilled to bring the Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize to Cork once again this year. Working with Crawford Art Gallery for last year’s exhibitions was a terrific experience, and we’re thrilled to bring new work to audiences in the south west yet again in 2021.”
Mary McCarthy, Director of Crawford Art Gallery, commented: ”The Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize 2019 edition fully engaged our audiences at Crawford and stimulated us to relook at the Crawford’s Art Collection and exhibit some of our work in a new context. Partnering with the National Gallery of Ireland brings huge professional reach and benefit to Crawford Art Gallery and we are grateful to both the National Gallery of Ireland and Zurich for their generous collaboration. As we are living in such extreme times we anticipate some interesting perspectives from artists and our younger creatives in the 2021 edition.”
Neil Freshwater, CEO of Zurich, added: “As we sponsor these important national competitions for a third year in 2020, we’re happy to see the partnership between the National Gallery of Ireland and Crawford Art Gallery grow. It will be exciting to see the shortlists of both the Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize displayed in Cork again next year.”
The Zurich Portrait Prize aims to encourage interest in contemporary portraiture and to showcase the National Portrait Collection at the National Gallery of Ireland. Judges for the Zurich Portrait Prize are artist Rita Duffy; Dr Philip Cottrell, lecturer and assistant professor at the School of Art History and Cultural Policy, UCD; Aoife Ruane, Director of Highlanes Gallery.
Following a hugely popular inaugural edition in 2019, the Zurich Young Portrait Prize returns in 2020. The inclusive art competition is open to children and young people of all abilities aged up to 18 from across the island of Ireland. This year’s Zurich Young Portrait Prize judges are Head of Education at The Hunt Museum Maria Cagney; artist Colin Davidson; and illustrator, author and comedian Aoife Dooley.
Details of the Zurich Portrait Prize and the Zurich Young Portrait Prize including information about entering the competitions can be found at www.nationalgallery.ie.
