Daniel Nelis is the winner of the National Gallery of Ireland’s AIB Portrait Prize with this work, an oil on panel portrait of his wife Andrea titled Late Spring. Along with a €15,000 prize he will receive a €5,000 commission to create a new work for the National Portrait Collection. John Foley and Conor O’Leary received highly commended prizes of €1,500 for their works Biddy Boy and The Final Portrait. Guorui Sui, aged 11, was selected as the overall winner of the AIB Young Portrait Prize for his work My Own World of Fantasy.
The artist and curator from Donegal said the portrait was painted in the months before his marriage. “Andrea has been a recurring presence in my work. The painting does not seek to sentimentalise our relationship, but to bear witness through an intimate and intrusive lens, with elements such as the fabrics and heather rendered with the same scrutiny as the figure. Such moments of quiet reflection, experienced in the vivid reality of the present, are of greatest interest in my work.” Nelis studied Fine Art Painting at Ulster University, later completing an MA in Art History, Collections and Curating at University College Dublin. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, at the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts, the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts.
