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Wilfrid Wood — Plasticine Model of Connor Newall
An open call celebrating outstanding contemporary portraiture by artists from Jersey and across the Channel Islands. Free to enter. All media welcome.
First Prize
£1,500
Runner-up (×2)
£500 each
Deadline
30 Sep 2026
Exhibition
January 2027
Entry Fee
Free
About the Award
ArtHouse Jersey is delighted to announce the launch of the Portrait Award — Jersey's first major open award dedicated to the art of portraiture. Open to artists from Jersey and across the Channel Islands, this is an invitation to explore what it means to truly see another person: their presence, their history, their contradictions.
Whether your practice is painting, photography, sculpture, textile, ceramics, digital, or something that resists categorisation, we want to see how you approach the face, the figure, the self. There is no single definition of what a portrait must be — only the quality of attention you bring to it.
A selection of shortlisted works will form a major exhibition at Capital House in January 2027, presented alongside a curated survey of international portraiture. Winners are announced at the opening.
"The portrait has always been a site of power, intimacy, and radical imagination. We want to see where Jersey artists take it next."
The Prizes
First Prize
£1,500
Awarded to the outstanding work of the award. The First Prize winner will be invited to give a public talk as part of the exhibition programme. Their work will be acquired for the ArtHouse Jersey collection.
Runner-Up
£500
One of two runner-up prizes, awarded to works demonstrating exceptional skill, a distinctive approach, or a particularly compelling subject.
Runner-Up
£500
One of two runner-up prizes. All shortlisted works will be exhibited at Capital House and promoted to ArtHouse Jersey's community and press contacts.
Total prize fund: £2,500. Entry is free. All shortlisted artists will have their work exhibited and receive full documentation photography of the show. Shortlisting itself is a mark of distinction we will actively promote.
Key Dates
01
Applications Open
Now
Download the full submission brief from the ArtHouse Jersey website. Applications are free to submit via the online portal.
02
Deadline
30 Sep
2026
All submissions must arrive by midnight on 30 September 2026. Late entries cannot be accepted under any circumstances.
03
Shortlist
Autumn
2026
Shortlisted artists are notified and invited to deliver work for the exhibition. All shortlisted works will be shown.
04
Exhibition Opens
Jan
2027
The Portrait Award exhibition opens at Capital House, St Helier. Winners announced at the opening. Free admission throughout.
Portraiture is among the oldest forms of human art-making — and among the most contested. Every portrait asks a version of the same questions: who deserves to be seen? Who holds the gaze? What is the relationship between likeness and truth? From the Fayum mummy portraits of Roman Egypt to Lucian Freud's unflinching oils, from August Sander's encyclopaedic portraits of Weimar society to the confrontational selfies of contemporary social media — the portrait never stops generating new arguments about identity, power, and representation.
The ArtHouse Jersey Portrait Award is emphatically not looking for a single kind of portrait. We are interested in work from painters and photographers, ceramicists and textile artists, digital artists and sculptors. We welcome figurative work and abstract responses to the idea of the face. We are as interested in the absent subject as the present one.
Jersey occupies a particular position in British and French cultural history — and has produced painters, photographers, and printmakers of considerable ambition. This award is an opportunity to place contemporary Channel Islands portraiture in a wider conversation, and to begin building a record of who we are, how we see each other, and what portraiture might still do.
The inaugural edition will be a statement of intent. We expect to be surprised.
Works from ArtHouse Jersey
VascoNatalie Mayer
UntitledSamuel Kirszenbaum
PortraitLaura Hudson & Rachel Ara
StudioDanny Booth — Photo: Blake Watson
Who Can Enter
£2,500
Total prize fund
Free
No entry fee
3 works
Max submissions per artist
All
Media accepted
Capital House, St Helier — Photo: Scott Evans
Exhibition Venue
The Portrait Award exhibition will take place at Capital House — ArtHouse Jersey's dedicated gallery space in the heart of St Helier. An intimate venue with considered proportions, Capital House is designed for work that demands close attention and time. The gallery is free to enter and open to all.
The January 2027 show will place award winners in dialogue with a curated survey of contemporary portrait work from local and international artists — giving shortlisted artists a meaningful context for their work and significant public exposure.
Capital House, St Helier, JerseyOpen Call — Deadline 30 September 2026
Free to enter. All media. Artists from Jersey and the Channel Islands. Download the full brief to get started.