Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award deadline extended due to Cyclone Gabrielle

Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award judge Lisa Reihana at the 2021 exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. Photo / Supplied

Organisers of the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award have extended the deadline for entry submissions to March 30 due to the nationwide impact of Cyclone Gabrielle.

New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata together with the office of the Kiingitanga launched the biennial Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award in August 2020 to motivate emerging Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna (ancestors).

Artists are given an opportunity to showcase their talent on a national stage while competing for a prize of $20,000. The runner-up and people’s choice award winners each receive $2500.

Entries are open to emerging Māori artists who have either created an artwork within the last two years, or wish to create an artwork especially for the competition, using any visual medium, with whakapapa connections to the depicted tūpuna.

The finalist artworks will be judged at the opening of the exhibition on Wednesday, May 24 by a distinguished panel comprising renowned artists.

These include Māori multi-disciplinary, portrait artist Graham Hoete aka “Mr G” (Ngāti Awa, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui), 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.

Kiingi Tuheitia. Photo / Erica Sinclair

Commentating on the extension, director of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata Jaenine Parkinson said the team made the decision to push out the deadline by another week to give artists some breathing room.

“It has been an intense and disruptive month with many artists and their whānau affected by the cyclone and rough weather conditions, so we wanted to extend the submission date and give artists a fair and reasonable opportunity to enter.”

An information pack on how to enter is available to download from nzportraitgallery.org.nz/kiingituheitiaaward