Jessica Gurnsey is the winner of The Stuff Art Aotearoa Gold Award 2025, with ‘Ticket to Womanhood’. This nationwide award series recognising artistic excellence has been presented by Art Shows Across Aotearoa with the support of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, which purchased Jessica’s work as well as those of her fellow regional finalists, Lisa Call and Shannon Turuwhenua. All three works are currently on loan and hanging within Parliament.

About the Artist

Jessica Gurnsey is an exceptionally talented young artist whose work has already been recognised with numerous awards - including the prestigious Adam Portraiture Award, won in 2022 when she was only eighteen.

Her works tend to depict people with beautifully executed detail in her chosen medium of acrylics on canvas. Jessica says of work, “I love to depict people in the places I meet them, almost a snapshot in time. With such great detail that I can step back from a painting and recognise their expressions, the specific way their hair falls, the creases by their eyes, and the textures in the pavement they stand on. I love imperfections painted perfectly, because these are what make us human, and the details around us often inform the building of our sense of self.”

Jessica’s previous awards: 

National Youth Art Award 2021- Overall prize

National Youth Art Award 2021 - 15-19 years first prize

National Youth Art Award 2022 - 15-19 years first prize

Adam Portraiture Award 2022 - 1st place winner

Staedtler Artist of the year 2022 - Runner up

Kumeu Arts Award 2022 - 16-18 years first prize

Kumeu Arts Award 2022 - People's choice award

Wellington Regional Arts Review 2023 - Finalist