The Adam Portraiture Award is New Zealand’s premier portrait prize. This year the record number of entries has been selected down to fifty-nine finalists by Guest Judge Mette Skougaard, Director of The Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark.
This national touring exhibition comprises a selection of the finalists’ portraits from the 2016 Adam Portraiture Award exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. The exhibition promotes the best of contemporary portrait painting from established and emerging artists, and the portraits range from abstract to realistic.

Famous New Zealanders such as Dick Frizzell, Tame Iti, Chris Knox and Chris Cairns sit amongst self-portraits and portraits of family members and friends and while portrait painting is a genre in its own right this competition intersects with contemporary art concerning issues of identity and representation.

Denis and Verna Adam, the long term patrons of the Award, established it in recognition that portraiture is not only an important art form, but provides a pictorial record for future generations. The biennale award has been generously sponsored by the Adam Foundation since 2002.

2016 Adam Portraiture Award winner: Sisters by Andre Bronnimann, oil on canvas