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.

The Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 is organised by the National Portrait Gallery, London. 

Image credit: Kofi, 2024 by Michelle Liu © Michelle Liu