ON TUESDAY 13 JUNE the winner of the BP Portrait Award 2006 was announced by singer and art collector Bryan Ferry at the National Portrait Gallery. In the 17th year of its support, BP also announced it was extending its sponsorship of the competition from 2007 until 2011. Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, says: 'This year's BP Award brought an outstanding entry in the range and quality of portraits. We have a very strong shortlist of prizewinners and Andrew Tift's first-prize winning entry is a remarkable and penetrating study.'
The winner of the BP Portrait Award 2006 is Andrew Tift for "Kitty". Second prize winner is Rafael Rodriguez Cruz, for 'Model 1' from Models of a Self Portrait. Third prize winner is Angela Reilly for Self-Portrait.
Confirming the extension of BP's sponsorship of the competition, Des Violaris, Director, UK Arts and Culture, BP, says: 'The popularity of this competition with both young artists and the public who visit the National Portrait Gallery to see their work is testament to the vitality of portraiture in the UK. BP is extremely pleased to be able to extend our involvement with the award, which provides a unique opportunity for portrait artists to reach new and wide audiences.'
BP TRAVEL AWARD 2006
The BP Travel Award is an annual award of £4,000, which allows young artists to expand their horizons. This year's Award has been won by Toby Wiggins who will travel in a camper van from Dorset to the New Forest, in the beautiful southern English countryside immortalised as Wessex in the novels of Thomas Hardy. Toby will document the changes in agricultural communities, that he himself knows well, by portraying people engaging in a wide variety of rural work.
BP TRAVEL AWARD 2005
Last year the Travel Award was won by London artist Joel Ely who travelled to Bilbao in the Basque country to paint and document the activities of a Txoko, a gastronomic members-only society which meets to eat traditional Basque dishes and to drink and talk. The resulting works by Joel - who is a chef as well as an artist - are displayed alongside the BP Portrait Award 2006.
absolutearts.com is proud to announce that Premiere Portfolio Member Aleksandra Jarosz Laszlo was selected, as one of 56 artists from around the world, to exhibit her work "Leon". Jarosz Lazszlo states about her work, "I constantly refer to myself. Although there are others. People I care about and people I meet. I freeze a remembered moment on canvas. Like the expression of a thought or a feeling, somebodys face, laugher, a grimace, or a body posture.
"The subject which I find for my work comes from everyday life and it can be personal or about something I’ ve seen on TV or read in a newspaper. I try to expose many of our unconcious thoughts as well as some of the more uncomfortable human impulses, like envy, betrayal or humiliation."
View more of Jarosz Laszlo at http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/j/jaroszlaszlo/
Related Links:
