Scottish Portrait Awards 2026 Exhibition

The Scottish Portrait Awards open at The Portrait, National Galleries of Scotland on 28 November 2026, and they'll stay there until 11 April 2027. It's the biggest awards competition for portraiture in Scotland, run by the Scottish Arts Trust since 2017, and this is the first time the exhibition has been held at The Portrait.

There are three categories to the competition, with prizes totalling £17,500. The John Clark Motor Group Scottish Portrait Award covers fine art, the MPB Scottish Portrait Award is for photography, and the Scotland Now! Phone Portrait Award is for images taken on a phone. The fine art prize comes with a commission for a work to join Scotland's national collection, and the fine art panel is chaired by Gordon Mitchell, a Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour elect. The Scotland Now! competition is free to enter, and its top 60 images form a rolling digital portrait of Scotland today.

The competition is open to anyone over 16 who was born, lives, or studies in Scotland, and it welcomes any medium or style. The exhibition itself brings together the results, with the Scottish Portrait Awards 2026 exhibition showing alongside the Scotland Now! Phone Portrait Awards digital display.

Entry is free, and the galleries are open daily from 10am to 5pm. You'll find the exhibition at The Portrait, National Galleries of Scotland, 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD.