AIB Portrait Prize and Young Portrait Prize 2024

Image Source: Shortlisted for the AIB portrait prizes 2024: John and Fionnán, an oil on canvas painting by Darragh O’Connell

9 November 2024 – 9 March 2025

Portrait Gallery (Room 23) | Admission free

The Gallery’s annual AIB Portrait Prize exhibition features the shortlist of works chosen from hundreds of entries. This competition, showcasing contemporary portraiture, is open to artists from across the island of Ireland, and Irish artists living abroad. The winner of the competition will receive a cash prize of €15,000 and will be commissioned to create a work for the National Portrait Collection, for which they will be awarded a further €5,000. Two additional awards of €1,500 will be given to highly commended works. The winner will be announced at a ceremony held in the Gallery on 27 November 2024.

Running in tandem, the AIB Young Portrait Prize is an inclusive art competition for young people of all abilities which aims to support creativity, originality and self-expression. The AIB Portrait Prize and AIB Young Portrait Prize run from 9 November 2024 to 9 March 2025 in the Portrait Gallery. The winners will be announced at a ceremony held in the Gallery on 27 November 2024.

Judges – AIB Portrait Prize
Hughie O’Donoghue is an artist, painter and writer. Born in Manchester, he now lives and works in London and Erris, Mayo. In 2009, he was elected an Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in the category of Painting.

Emer McGarry is the Director of The Model, Sligo. The Model is a leading centre for contemporary arts in Ireland and home of The Niland Collection. Recent projects include ‘The Sunset Belongs To You’, an exhibition of commissioned oil portraits of Sligo children.

Simon O’Connor is the Director of the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI). Opened in 2019, MoLI is a focal point for 20th and 21st century Irish writing, located in the heart of Dublin. Previously, Simon O’Connor was the founding curator of the Little Museum of Dublin.
An exhibition sponsored by AIB, organised by the National Gallery of Ireland.

Judges – AIB Young Portrait Prize
This year’s AIB Young Portrait Prize judges are: Ashwin Chacko, author-illustrator and motivational speaker, Emmalene Blake, a visual street artist, renowned for their large-scale portraits and Sheena Barrett, Head of Research and Learning at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.