Four Cork artists shortlisted for the Zurich Portrait Prize
New portrait work by Cork artists Rachel Ballagh, Marc O'Sullivan Vallig and David Creedon.
Out of hundreds of entries, four artists from Cork are among those shortlisted for the 2022 Zurich Portrait Prize and Zurich Young Portrait Prize competitions.
The shortlists for the prestigious prizes feature 26 adult artists, working across a variety of media, and 20 young artists aged between four and eighteen years old.
Cork artists Rachel Ballagh, David Creedon and Marc O'Sullivan Vallig are shortlisted for the Zurich Portrait Prize, while Róisín Ryan is shortlisted for the Zurich Young Portrait Prize. Kerry artist Liz Purtill is also in the shortlist for the adult prize.
Ballycotton-based Rachel Ballagh makes the running with 'Back Garden', a piece of monochrome photography. The daughter of artist Robert Ballagh, she's established a large and distinguished body of work from her East Cork studio.
A renowned photographer who frequently appears in this paper and elsewhere, David Creedon earns a place on the shortlist with 'Sanctuary in a New Land', a portrait of 17-year-old student Rustam Saidaliev, who fled Kharkib in Ukraine with his family in March and currently resides in Youghal.
Visual artist and arts journalist (including a regular contribution to this paper), Marc O'Sullivan Vallig is on the list with 'Alex', an oil-on-canvas painting from 2021.
Meanwhile, in the Young Portrait Prize category, Roisín Ryan has created a vivid self-portrait with markers on paper with 'Me in the Stars'.
The winner of the main prize will receive a cash prize of €15,000, and will be commissioned to create a work for the national portrait collection, earning a further €5,000.
Two additional awards of €1,500 will be given to highly commended works, as awarded by judges Diana Copperwhite, artist; Anna O'Sullivan, Director of the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny; and Nick Miller, artist.
The Zurich Young Portrait Prize returns for its fourth year in 2022, and five winners - one from each respective age category and an overall winner - will be selected from a shortlist of hundreds of entries from young people aged four to 18.
Winners will receive a bespoke art box and a cash prize, while the overall competition winner will be awarded a personalised wooden box of high-quality art materials, specific to their choice of material in their portrait, and a cash prize of €500.
All twenty shortlisted entrants will have their artwork professionally framed/prepared. This year’s judges are: Janet McLean, curator, National Gallery of Ireland; Nick Roche, comic illustrator; and Una Sealy, artist.
Exhibitions of shortlisted works in both competitions run at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin between November 26, 2022 and April 2, 2023. The exhibition won't make its traditional trip to the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork next year, but will travel to the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, between June 3 and September 2, 2023.
