PORTRAIT AWARD 2023

NEXT PORTRAIT AWARD COMPETITION: 2023
THE FIRST ROUND of Entries are digital. Digital entries open in 2023.
Make sure that you have read and understand the rules of entry before getting started.
Good luck with your entry!
Portrait Award 2021 Results:
The Rupert Art Foundation First Prize Winner – Felicity Bell
The Rupert Art Foundation Second Prize Winner – Ashley Ogilvy
The Rupert Art Foundation Third Prize Winner – Christelle du Plessis
The COart and Blue Cactus Artist Residency Prize – Nhlakanipho Mkhize
The Italian Art Shop Oil Sennelier Prize – Corlie de Kock
The Italian Art Shop Watercolour Sennelier Prize – Lucia du Preez
The Emerging Artist Award – Nokutando Muteweri (Tutoring with Andrew James of the UK Royal Portrait Society)
2019 Winning Portrait – “Lesala in Silhouette” by Craig Cameron-Mackintosh
This will celebrate and showcase the best original portrait artwork in South Africa. Artists from all walks of life, 21 years and older, are challenged to enter works which exemplify their ability in the medium of their choice (excluding lens-based artwork, i.e. video, film, photography). All works were judged anonymously as artists were requested not to sign their work.
KwaZulu-Natal artist Heather Gourlay-Conyngham has won the first ever Sanlam Private Investments (SPI) National Portrait Award for her nude male portrait entitled “A Young Man” (177 x 80cm, oil on canvas). The award was announced at a ceremony at the Rust-en-Vrede Art Gallery in Durbanville in August 2013.
Gourlay-Conyngham’s winning portrait beat a staggering 1 783 adjudicated entries to the top prize of R100 000. It has joined 39 other selected entries in an exhibition at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, whereafter the 40 works toured South Africa in an exhibition presented in collaboration with the Sanlam Art Collection.
Stefan Hundt, head of SPI’s art advisory service, commended the judges for their “exceptional dedication in making a very difficult decision, given the large number of entries received”. The independent panel consisted of Hayden Proud, curator for Historical Painting and Sculptures at the Iziko SA National Gallery in Cape Town, Vulindlela Nyoni, a lecturer in printmaking at the University of Stellenbosch, and artist and art teacher Susanne du Toit. Du Toit recently scooped the prestigious 2013 BP Portrait Award in the United Kingdom.
The 40 selected artists are: