See the incredible young talent in Ireland …
“Watching entries arrive and the shortlist be announced for the AIB Portrait Prize and Young Portrait Prize competitions is a highlight of our year every year,” says Dr Caroline Campbell, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland.
Returning for its seventh year, the AIB Young Portrait Prize showcases the artistic talent of young people aged 18 and under. This year’s judges included Cian O’Brien, and artists Neil-Jack (Alphonsus) Hamilton and Alice Rekab.
Five winners (one from each respective age category and an overall winner) will be selected from the shortlist on November 25. The overall winner will be awarded a personalised box of art materials and a cash prize of €500. Here’s a preview of the shortlist …
Abigail Leonard, age 4 (Kildare), Rainy Day, pencil, charcoal, collage and paint on paper.
Victoria Muradova, age 5 (Dublin), This is me with flowers walking around Istanbul, chalk on paper.
Rohan Agrawal, age 6 (Dublin), Me and My Curls, oil pastels and acrylic on canvas.
Elijah Coada, age 6 (Sligo), Sharing Ice Cream is Fun, collage: watercolour, oil pastels, paper, leaf, posca markers on paper.
Darra Murphy, age 6 (Dublin), Louis, my brother, pencil and marker on paper.
Emilie Cowley Lane, age 9 (Meath), Mom, clay on board.
Cillian Rush, age 9 (Down), Thumbs Up, acrylic painting on paper.
Michael Ryan, age 10 (Clare), In Deep Thought, paint on paper.
James Scally, age 11 (Dublin), Depends How You Look at It, pencil on paper.
Guorui Sui, age 11 (Dublin), My Own World of Fantasy, oil pastel on canvas.
Alice Agafonova, age 13 (Dublin), Presence, acrylic on paper.
Claire Darcy, age 14 (Galway), Six, digital illustration on paper.
Samuel Deasy, age 14 (Cork), Mark, photograph.
Ruixin Chen, age 15 (Wicklow), Climbing Through, oil paint on canvas.
Jiayi Sun, age 15 (Dublin), Guess How Much I Love You, gouache, polychromos colour pencils on canvas.
Martha McKeown, age 16 (Armagh) Obscure, pencil on paper.
Walt Russell, age 16 (Dublin), Memento Mori, oil on paper.
Matthew Foley, age 18 (Dublin), 05/03/2025, acrylic paint on acrylic paper.
Jill Tritschler, age 18 (Wicklow), Minerva, oil on canvas.
Danny Walsh, age 18 (Mayo), Queen of the May, acrylic on canvas.
Need to know: Exhibitions of the shortlisted works will be on display in the Portrait Gallery (Room 23) in the National Gallery of Ireland from November 8 to March 15, with the winners announced at a ceremony on November 25. Audiences in Donegal and Waterford will have a chance to see these works when they travel to the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny before moving to the Waterford Gallery of Art in 2026.
