Walters Prize


The Walters Prize is New Zealand's largest contemporary art prize.
Held biennially since 2002, the prize aims to 'make contemporary art a more widely recognised and debated feature of cultural life'. The prize is named in honour of New Zealand abstract painter Gordon Walters and the founding benefactors and principal donors are Erika and Robin Congreve and Dame Jenny Gibbs. The prize is organised by and held at Auckland Art Gallery.
Four artists are nominated each year by a panel of four New Zealand-based jurors for a work or body of work exhibited in the previous two years. The four artists are invited to install the nominated works at the Auckland Art Gallery in a public exhibition. The prize is awarded by a visiting international judge.
The winner receives $50,000.
WWW aucklandartgallery.com/ab...

Recipients and finalists

2024
Judge: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung
Jurors: Robert Leonard, Tendai Mutambu, Melanie Oliver and Hanahiva Rose
Winner: Ana Iti A resilient heart like the mānawa
Finalists:
  • Juliet Carpenter EGOLANE
  • Owen Connors your cart and plow over the bones of the dead and Incubations
  • Brett Graham Tai Moana Tai Tangata
  • Ana Iti The woman whose back was a whetstone, ''Roharoha and I must shroud myself in stinging nettle
2021
Judge: Kate Fowle
Jurors: Allan Smith, Nathan Pohio, Melanie Oliver, Charlotte Huddleston.
Finalists:
There was some controversy over conflict of interest with this iteration of the Walters Prize, as two of the selected works had been in exhibitions curated by jurors.
2018
Judge: Adriano Pedrosa
Jurors: Stephen Cleland, Allan Smith, Lara Strongman, Megan Tamati-Quennell
Finalists:
2016
Judge: Doryun Chong
Jurors: Emma Bugden, Peter Robinson, Lara Strongman, Nina Tonga
Finalists:
  • Shannon Te Ao for Two shoots that stretch far out
  • Joyce Campbell for Flightdream
  • Nathan Pohio for Raise the anchor, unfurl the sails, set course to the centre of an ever setting sun!
  • Lisa Reihana for in Pursuit of Venus
2014
Judge: Charles Esche
Jurors: Tina Barton, Anna-Marie White, Peter Robinson, Caterina Riva.
Finalists:
2012
Judge: Mami Kataoka
Jurors: David Cross, Aaron Kreisler, Kate Montgomery, Gwynneth Porter.
2010
Judge: Vicente Todolí
Jurors: Jon Bywater, Rhana Devenport, Leonhard Emmerling and Kate Montgomery.
German-based New Zealand artist Michael Stevenson was also nominated for his 2008 exhibition Persepolis 2530 shown in Bristol, but the Auckland Art Gallery stated that 'due to accommodation and budgetary constraints it was not possible to exhibit' the work and therefore while the nomination stood it was not eligible for judging.
2008
Judge: Catherine David
Jurors: Jon Bywater, Elizabeth Caldwell, Andrew Clifford and Rhana Devenport
2006
Judge: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Jurors: Tina Barton, Andrew Clifford, Wystan Curnow and Heather Galbraith
2004
Judge: Robert Storr
Jurors: Tina Barton, Dr Deidre Brown, Greg Burke and Justin Paton
2002'
Judge: Harald Szeemann
Jurors: Robert Leonard, Justin Paton, Anna Miles and William McAloon