Walters Prize 2027 Finalists Announced by Auckland Art Gallery

Four artists selected for Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading contemporary art award, with exhibition set for March 2027.

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki has named the four finalists for the 2027 Walters Prize, selecting artists whose recent work reflects a close attention to lived experience, material process and shifting social conditions.

Held every three years, the Walters Prize is one of the country’s most closely watched awards for contemporary art. The 2027 shortlist draws from work first shown between February 2023 and February 2026. An independent jury selected the finalists, noting a shared tendency to work through local and personal narratives rather than large-scale spectacle.

The shortlisted artists are Edith Amituanai, Richard Frater, Ammon Ngakuru and Sorawit Songsataya.

Amituanai was selected for Vaimoe (2024), first shown in a two-person exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna Waiwhetū. Known for her photographic work, she moves here into video while staying close to the pace and clarity that mark her earlier practice. The work considers ideas of home and distance, focusing on how relationships are maintained across separation and change.

Frater, who is based in Berlin, was nominated for Nicky’s conversion (2024), first presented at Klosterruine Berlin and later at Lett Thomas. The work follows an Anglican priest rehearsing a sermon. It sits with questions of gender identity and faith, and how inherited structures can be reworked from within.

Ngakuru’s Three Scenes (2025) was commissioned for Auckland Art Gallery and developed in response to its outdoor terrace overlooking Albert Park. Spare, but deliberate, the work sets up a situation where viewers move through a field of references without a fixed point of resolution.

Songsataya was selected for Fibrous Soul, an exhibition presented at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 2024. Working across sculpture and moving image, the project draws together organic and synthetic materials, as well as customary and contemporary practices. It includes contributions connected to the late weaver and kaitiaki Maata Wharehoka, and looks at how knowledge and form move between people, materials and environments.

Gallery director Zara Stanhope described the selection as a clear snapshot of current practice. “Their selection is a poignant reminder of the breadth and range of art across Aotearoa New Zealand and of the activity currently shaping the visual arts as a healthy and vital part of the cultural sector,” she said.

Senior curator Natasha Conland pointed to the material and conceptual focus of the work. “These finalists express materially rich works with unique, often humorous and intellectually rewarding content,” she said.

The four artists will present work in a dedicated exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery, opening in March 2027. The winner of the Walters Prize will be announced during the exhibition period.

Image: Sorawit Songsataya, Ranad detail from the exhibition Fibrous Soul, 2024. Taranaki andesite, Ōamaru limestone, onyx, dried plant. Taranaki andesite carving by Donald Buglass. Photo courtesy of the artist and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery