On The Up: Six Bay of Plenty artists selected as finalists in Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Award

Rotorua artist Emily Wharekura has been selected as a finalist in the Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Award for her artwork Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa.

NZME has launched On The Up – a national campaign showcasing stories of inspiration, success, courage and possibilities. Megan Wilson speaks to two Bay of Plenty artists honoured to be finalists in the Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Award.

Hard work has “paid off” for Pāpāmoa artist Shalom Rickard after she was selected as a finalist in the Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Award.

Rotorua artist Emily Wharekura says it felt “great to have my art recognised” after also being selected.

The pair are two of six Bay of Plenty artists and 41 nationally who were selected for the awards’ finalists’ exhibition in Wellington.

The award was established in 2020 as a partnership between the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata and the late Kīngi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII in order to inspire a new generation of emerging Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna (ancestors), a press release said.

The 2025 award is hosted and administered by the gallery in his honour, with the blessing of Kuini Nga wai hono i te po Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VIII, the current Māori Queen.

Artists are competing for a first prize of $20,000, with the runner-up and people’s choice awards offering $2500.

Entries were open to emerging Māori artists aged 35 and younger who created an artwork with whakapapa (genealogy) connections to the depicted tūpuna.

‘Over the moon’

Rickard, of Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tūhoe and Te Arawa, said she was “over the moon” to be a finalist.

“I’d been working on the piece for about six months, and I was going backwards and forwards from it,” the 24-year-old said.

She submitted her artwork Oh Mum and “felt like it was special”.

Bay of Plenty artist Shalom Rickard's artwork has been selected as one of 41 finalists in the Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Award.

“I had a good feeling that it was going to get through and it did. So hard work paid off.”

Rickard said she used acrylic paint on a stretched canvas. She also used tissue paper to acknowledge something her great-grandmother Whaia Te Rangi McClutchie had said on the marae about “separating her skirt, essentially, to remind men of where they came from”.

She said McClutchie was an orator, “a bit of a feminist”, and “quite a profound woman” to Ngāti Porou.

Rickard said McClutchie was a reminder that “women have a voice” and “we too should be included in everything, not just the men, the tane.”

Pāpāmoa artist Shalom Rickard has been selected as a finalist in the 2025 Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Award.

She said the artwork was also “for women”.

Rickard said the face did not have eyes “because I didn’t really believe that you can fully capture a person’s essence through the eyes”.

“The face is sort of pale, almost to reflect like a mirror so when a woman is looking ... she sees herself, to remind herself that she has a voice.”

Rickard said she started an after-school art programme for children in Pāpāmoa in 2022.

Portraying ‘happiness and love’

Wharekura, of Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngā Puhi, and Ngāti Rangitihi, said it was “an honour and a privilege” to be selected for her artwork Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa.

“It was a surprise honestly, it felt great to have my art recognised,” the 23-year-old said.

Rotorua artist Emily Wharekura has been selected as a finalist in the Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Award.

Her chosen tūpuna were her father, Philip Wharekura, and grandmother, Ngaio Te Rito Wharekura.

She used acrylic and oil paint on canvas to highlight “the love that’s there”.

“I think sometimes when we talk about our ancestors ... it sort of is separated from our connection to them, and our connection is always that really strong love bond.

“I really wanted to show ... that happiness and love that I feel from my tūpuna.”

Rotorua artist Emily Wharekura has been selected as a finalist in the Kīngi Tūheitia Portraiture Award. Photo / Supplied

Wharekura said she had just finished her Bachelor of Visual Arts at AUT in Auckland “but I’ve been painting my whole life”.

“My whole family are quite artistic.”

New Zealand Portrait Gallery director Jaenine Parkinson said it was “incredibly inspiring” to see the innovative ways emerging Māori artists were expressing their whakapapa.

“This award is a vital platform for young artists to share their stories on a national stage while preserving the legacy of their ancestors.”

The other Bay of Plenty finalists are Tahu-Potiki Te Maro-Doran, Rhian Smith, Aliana Wills, Jazmin Tainui and Mihi Paget-Knebel.

The winners will be announced at the exhibition opening on May 21.

The exhibition will be on at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Wellington from May 22 to August 17.

The finalists’ artworks will then tour Aotearoa over the next two years.

Those interested in Rickard’s after-school art programme can contact her via email on shalomrickardartist@gmail.com.

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.