Guidelines for the competition

The aim of the competition is to stimulate interest in the portrait genre amongst artists and the general public. The competition applies to artists in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Greenland, The Faroe Islands, Iceland, and The Åland Islands.

An international jury of experts will select the prize winners and the artworks that will be included in the Portrait NOW! 2023 exhibition.

The artworks will be judged in two phases: The jury will make a pre-selection based on the photos that the artists upload upon entry. The preselected artworks will be handed in to The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg, where the final selection for the exhibition Portrait NOW! 2023 will take place. The artists behind the preselected artworks will be notified directly.

The exhibition will be displayed at The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg from May 2023.

Rules

’The portrait’ is understood as a representation of a person. It need not be naturalistic, but should, however, seek to characterize the person. The medium used for this representation is at the discretion of the artist. The artwork must be based on at least one face to face session with the portrayed.

Each artist can submit one portrait to the competition. The portrait can comprise of a series of works if the series has one theme and as long as the series in total does not exceed the limits given below. Use plexiglass instead of regular glass in case of framing. Video art is also submitted here on the website, and a direct link to the video must be inserted in the comments field.

Portraits submitted to Portrait NOW! 2021 must not exceed the following restrictions:

• The combined size of two-dimensional artwork must not exceed 2.0 x 2.0 x 0.25 meters; for three-dimensional artwork 1.0 x 1.0 x 1.75 meters.
• Artwork exceeding 50 kg will not be accepted.
• Artwork made from short-lived organic materials will not be considered.
• Date of artwork creation predating 1^st of January 2021 will not be considered.
• Employees at The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg cannot enter the competition.

Entry

Entry for Nordic artists opens on 1 July 2022 and closes at 11.59 PM on 19 January 2023. You can enter here on the website by completing a entry form and uploading a digital photograph of the work.

ID number

Upon entry, each artwork will be assigned a unique ID number, which the artists will receive in a confirmation email. The ID number must be used as a reference and kept by the artist. It is important to save this ID number for the duration of the competition. The same ID number will accompany the work during the jury phase, where the artist’s name will be anonymised for the jury members. Video art is also submitted on the website and assigned an ID number.

Picture: “Someone I know”. Sculpture by Gertrud Heide (DK), Portrait NOW! 2021.