Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026

Excellent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery showcasing the shortlisted submissions in this year's Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award.

This year's show had many striking naturalistic works in contrast to a few years which have had more abstract works. The concentration seemed to be on capturing an image and the character of the person and telling their story. Often probably unplanned themes seem to come through and this year it seemed to be stunning portraits of men of colour.

Shout outs to Louise Pagnell's portrait of Pops Mensah-Bonsu the basketball player and founder of a youth basketball charity, Niall MacArthur's portrait of his friend Ronnie with an exquisitely painted glass vase in front of her, "Genealogical Deformation" by Algirdas and Remigijus Gataveckas a joint self-portrait by identical twins with contrast of textures and my favourite this year, Karin Neijenhuis's self-portrait seen from the underside of an ironing board.

Closed 7 October 2026


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