2016 National Contemporary Art Award

The National Contemporary Art Award is sponsored by Chow:Hill Architects Ltd and Tompkins Wake, and managed by Waikato Museum.

First prize $20,000

Plus three Merit awards of $1,000 each

Waikato Museum will notify entrants of the judge's selection of finalists, the week commencing Monday 20 June 2016. 

Finalists will be announced the week commencing Monday 27 June 2016.

Exhibition opens Saturday 3 September 2016 - Sunday 4 December 2016.

Entry

Entry closed at 12pm, (midday), Thursday 9 June 2016

Entry is online, with payment via credit card.

There are three steps to entering:

• Artist information
• Description of work and upload of images and/or video
• Payment

Before you enter, please have ready:

• Your artist statement (up to 150 words maximum, preferably in a Word document you can copy and paste into the entry form)
• Your credit card details
• Up to five images of your artwork to upload (must be high resolution as these images are used to show finalists' work in print format)
• You can also upload a link to a video work, to show any entry including moving image projects or sculpture
• If you have multiple entries you will need to fill out an entry form for each entry. 

Please ensure you have read, and understand the Conditions of entry. 

Have a question? See our Frequently Asked Questions page. 

Judge

Image: 2016 National Contemporary Art Award judge Misal Adnan Yildiz.

Celebrated international curator Misal Adnan Yildiz will judge the National Contemporary Award this year.

Misal Adnan Yildiz has been the Director of Artspace NZ since November 2014.
Previously, he was the artistic director of Künstlerhaus Stuttgart between 2011 and 2014, one of curatorial collaborators of Fulya Erdemci for the 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013), and manifested A History of Inspiration as part of Nouvelle Vagues, Summer programme 2013 at Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

Yildiz was a participant of Curatorlab/Konstfack between 2006 and 2008, and collaborated with IASPIS, both in Stockholm. He produced significant number of solo exhibitions with Slavs and Tatars, Cevdet Erek, Ahmet Ögüt, and Hito Steyerl, among others as well as some group shows after his proposals were being selected through open calls or closed competitions: There is no audience at Montehermoso, in Spain (2009), Time Challenger, HISK, Belgium (2009),Correct me if I am critical multi venue project in Berlin (2010). He was shortlisted for ICI Vision Award in 2012 and shared Curate Award 2014 (Fondazione Prada & Qatar Museum) with two others.

Major sponsors

Merit award sponsors

Friends of Waikato Museum, Random Art Group and David’s Emporium