Gartan artist Daniel Nelis’s vivid portrait of his wife has won the prestigious AIB Portrait Prize 2025.
The evocative portrait, entitled Late Spring, was named as the overall winner at an event this evening in the National Gallery of Ireland.
Nelis, an art teacher at St Eunan’s College Letterkenny, was among 26 shortlisted artists from across Ireland working across a variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, video and photography.
Late Spring is done in oil on panel.
Late Spring, 2025 © Daniel Nelis
“This work is of my wife, Andrea, painted in the months before our marriage,” he said.
“Andrea has been a recurring presence in my work. The painting does not seek to sentimentalise our relationship, but to bear witness through an intimate and intrusive lens, with elements such as the fabrics and heather rendered with the same scrutiny as the figure. Such moments of quiet reflection, experienced in the vivid reality of the present, are of greatest interest in my work.”
Daniel Nelis and his wife Andrea. Photo courtesy of the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny
As the winner of the AIB Portrait Prize, Daniel will receive a cash prize of €15,000 and will be commissioned to create a work for the National Portrait Collection, for which they will be awarded a further €5,000.
Rooted in the desolate boglands of his home, Nelis’s paintings capture moments of stillness and contemplation, and through the intimacy of the mark-making, register his heightened awareness of the incursions of time.
Nelis studied Fine Art Painting at Ulster University, later completing an MA in Art History, Collections and Curating at University College Dublin. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, at the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts, the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts.
Throughout 2023, Nelis was the Early Career Curator in residence at the Regional Cultural Centre and Glebe House and Gallery.
The National Gallery is delighted to partner with Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny and Waterford Gallery of Art to present the AIB Portrait Prize and AIB Young Portrait Prize 2025.
Following the exhibitions at the National Gallery of Ireland, the works will travel to Letterkenny from 4 April to 20 June 2026, and to Waterford from 18 July to 11 October 2026.
Donegal’s Daniel Nelis wins National Gallery’s AIB Portrait Prize was last modified: November 26th, 2025 by Rachel McLaughlin
Tags: