Final entries sought for Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award

2021 finalists for the Kīngi Tuheitia Portraiture Award. Photo / Whakaata Māori Archive

Final entries are being sought for the country’s only portraiture award aiming to encourage the next generation of Māori artists.

The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award encourages emerging Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna, and entering means they’ll be in the running for a $25,000 prize pool.

Submissions close on March 23, 2023 for the competition, co-ordinated by the Office of the Kiingitanga and the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata.

First prize receives $20,000, while runners-up and recipients of a People’s Choice award will receive $2,500 each.

Open to any artists who’ve created some form of artwork in the last two years, the entrant needs to have a whakapapa connection to the tūpuna depicted.

Any visual medium can be used, not just canvas.

Renowned artist Graham Hoete (Mr G) joins a distinguished panel of judges. He says the competition is a way to allow people to tell their indigenous stories, and remove some of the intimidation factor surrounding the art scene.

Street artist Graham Hoete, known as Mr G, with his contribution to the inaugural Street Prints Festival at Mount Maunganui. Photo / George Novak

“Māori can feel a bit intimated in the arts space, so this is another way of providing an avenue for young artists to feel comfortable and tell their story the way they want to tell it. What makes us indigenous, especially as artists, is the fact that we are connected to the stories that we are telling - for me, that is the key.” Hoete says.

Hoete is joined by Māori researcher, artist, arts educator and curator Steve Gibbs and artist Lisa Reihana, who is known around the world for her portraits and digital art. Hoete says he’s living proof artists come from all walks of life.

“I come from a non-traditional trained background, being self-taught, and as a full-time artist for 19 years, I have had to carve out my own path as an artist. In saying that, I have achieved some things you can’t really achieve any other way by taking risks, and pure passion.

“I will be looking at the integrity and purity of art and people’s ability to share and tell their stories the way they want to tell them.” Hoete says.

Winners will be announced at the exhibition’s opening on Wednesday May, 24.