Parkin Drawing Prize 2023 – Call For Entries!

Artists sharpen your pencils and thinking caps as entries for New Zealand’s most prestigious drawing competition, The Parkin Drawing Prize are now invited.

The national competition, now into its 11th year, was founded and generously donated by arts patron Chris Parkin since 2012, after he discovered the New Zealand art world was missing a reasonably substantial drawing award.

A major cash prize of $25,000 and national recognition is on the cards for the winning entry. From approximately 500 entries, a portfolio of around 80 works is chosen by a judging panel for the annual exhibition. In addition to the premier prize of $25,000, another 10 highly commended prizes of $500.00 are awarded.

Anyone can apply to enter this anonymously selected contest as long as the artist is a New Zealand resident or citizen.

Previous winners include Monique Jansen (2013) with AO Folded Moire Drawing; Douglas Stichbury (2014) with Observer, Gabrielle Amodeo (2015) with The Floor We Walk On, Hannah Beehre’s Catastrophe (2016), Kirsty Lillico’s carpet installation State Block (2017), Jacqui Colley for Long Echo (2018), Michael Dell’s Every Valley (2019), Poppy Lekner’s Forward Slash (2020), Mark Braunias’ work ‘In search of the Saccharine Underground’ and Siân Stephens ‘Liam Cutting His Hair After An All-nighter’, at last year’s 10th anniversary.

Siân, who is now based in London with her partner Liam, urges any artists tossing up the idea of entering, to go for it.

“The Parkin Drawing Prize win was a completely life-changing experience for me, and it quite literally enabled me to move across the world to further my artistic career. The financial support that came with the prize money was instrumental to this, but also the confidence the win and the process around it gave me was unbelievable, and without it I’m not sure I would have been able to make such a decision. Having your artwork, pieces you pour yourself into completely for years, finally be recognized and celebrated on a large scale was such a fantastic feeling.”

Finalists will be pre-selected by the Judging Panel in June.

“More than a decade ago I was inspired by the New South Wales drawing Prize, the Dobell Prize and noticed a gap in the market for a competition in New Zealand to focus attention on drawing so decided to set about establishing one. Ten years on and I am proud of what has been achieved – a nationally recognised competition supporting arts and encouraging those who aren’t normally art gallery goers to check out the exhibition. Every year it is exciting to find out who the winner is, usually I don’t find out who wins until the night of prize giving when I award the prize. It’s an award I strongly recommend and encourage people to enter,” said Parkin Drawing Prize founder Chris Parkin.

Entry forms and further information are available on www.parkinprize.nz. Entries close at 4pm on 31 May 2023 and the winner will be announced on Monday 31 July 2023 to coincide with a public exhibition showcasing all finalists’ works to be held at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington.

Entry forms and further information are available on www.parkinprize.nz.

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