A special selection panel comprising the prize’s benefactor, Peter Hannan, local printmaker Heather Burness and Ivy Hill Gallery director Carolyn Killen and Sydney Contemporary CEO, Barry Keldoulis had some very difficult decisions to make this year.

Gallery curator, Iain Dawson, said all panellists were impressed with the quality of entries in the 2016 prize, which were up 55 per cent in entry numbers on the 2014 exhibition.

“We are pleased we’ve been able to reach out and connect with a larger group of artists than in the past, with entries coming from every state and territory in the country,” Mr Dawson said. 

He said details of the 23 finalists will be online on the gallery’s new website early next week.

“The website will allow the BVRG to reach more isolated communities and to present a modern, innovative face to the world and be an easy way for residents to keep up with activities at the gallery,” he said.

“Some big names in the portraiture world have joined the finalists this year with Michael Zavros, the Brisbane painter and winner of the 2010 $150,000 Moran Portrait Prize, Nicholas Harding, winner of the 2001 Archibald Prize, and Carwola-based 2015 Archibald finalist, Kerry McInnis.

“Local artist Matt Chun represents the Bega Valley Shire with a portrait of his late friend, fellow artist and respected art world supremo, Andrew Sayers.”

The 10th biennial Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award will be judged by Dr Christopher Chapman, the senior curator of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, on Friday, 17 June, and will be announced in the Bega Valley Regional Gallery that evening. 

The exhibition will run until August 20 with the award to be announced on June 17.