Today, the National Portrait Gallery has opened the Call for Entries in the Digital Portraiture Award 2016; entrants have until Friday 30 September to submit their digital portraits.
Now in its fifth year, the Award seeks to extend the traditional notion of portraiture to the digital realm and encourages creative thinking.
‘In a world dominated by Google, Facebook and Twitter – where the adage ‘you are what you eat’ has become ‘you are what you tweet’ – data is a conduit of identity,’ said Gill Raymond, Digital Manager at the Portrait Gallery.
‘The Portrait Gallery has always been interested in exploring the possibilities of portraiture and, while digital art as a medium has been around for decades, the genre of portraiture in this space is still evolving.
‘The Digital Portraiture Award is a unique opportunity for digital artists to help us define what portraiture looks like in the digital age.’
In 2016 the Award is moving in an exciting new direction. The Portrait Gallery is now offering one award category open to all entrants over the age of 18 consisting of $10,000 cash and an artistic residency valued at $15,000 with The Edge, at the State Library of Queensland, one of Australia’s leading centres for the development of contemporary art across digital technologies.
The Digital Portraiture Award highlights the Gallery’s commitment to screen-based narratives and digital technology. The highest quality works addressing identity and portraiture will be selected for exhibition and displayed in National Portrait Gallery from 2 December 2016.
The work of the Award finalists will also be available on the Portrait Gallery website extending the outreach potential of digital art to regional Australia and reinforcing the Gallery’s commitment to young and emerging artists.
The Digital Portraiture Award 2016 will be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery from 2 December 2016 to 9 April 2017.
Call for Entries closes 30 September 2016. For how to enter and examples of past finalists, see dpa.portrait.gov.au.
