New Exhibition at Laing Art Gallery - Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 and Exploring Identity
This spring and summer, visitors will have the chance to chart the history of portrait painting from the 16th century to the present day in two complementary exhibitions containing some of the finest historic, modern, and contemporary portraits.
The Laing Art Gallery will show the National Portrait Gallery’s celebrated painting competition, the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025, now in its 43rd year. The exhibition will be shown alongside Exploring Identity, a portraiture exhibition curated from North East Museums’ art collections that provides historical context to the Portrait Award.
The Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 features 46 portraits selected for display by a panel of judges and explores themes of cultural heritage, companionship, sexuality, illness, conflict, and grief. Highlights from the exhibition include a striking self-portrait by artist Moira Cameron, who has been named the winner, Michelle Liu’s portrait, Kofi, winner of the Young Artist Award, and the second and third prize winners are Cliff, Outreach Worker by Tim Benson and Memories by Martyn Harris.
Exploring Identity brings together some of the finest portraits from the Laing, Shipley, and Hatton Gallery collections. Highlights from the collections include works by Francis Bacon, Christina Robertson, Frederic Leighton, John Lavery, Harold Knight, and Arthur Hughes. Also represented are some of the North East’s most famous artists including Norman Cornish, Robert Jobling, and Harry Thubron. In this exhibition, portraits are so much more than just a physical likeness of a person—they are an embodiment of who that person is, their personal experiences, and their hopes for the future.
Julie Milne, Chief Curator of Art Galleries at North East Museums, said: “We are delighted to be hosting the National Portrait Gallery's celebrated painting competition - the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 at the Laing Art Gallery. This prestigious competition provides the showcase for so many talented artists to launch and develop their careers. It is also an opportunity for audiences to enjoy the unique perspectives and characteristics of both artists and sitters, and the life experiences these wonderful portraits hold.
“For us at the gallery, it has provided the creative catalyst to look afresh at our excellent art collections. In our complementary exhibition, Exploring Identity, ideas of individuality, distinctiveness and selfhood are examined. The exhibition includes portraits by Francis Bacon, Christina Robertson, Norman Cornish, John Lavery and Henry Thubron to name but a few.”
The Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 and Exploring Identity will be on display at the Laing Art Gallery from 28 March – 5 September 2026. Tickets are £11/£10 concessions and free for ages 21 and under. To find out more visit www.laingartgallery.org.uk.
Image: Kofi, 2024 by Michelle Liu © Michelle Liu
