The BP Portrait Award showcases the very best in contemporary portrait painting from around the world. For thirty-three years the exhibition has presented outstanding and innovative new work in a variety of styles and approaches, and it continues to be a highlight of the annual art calendar.

© Ignacio Estudillo. Courtesy by National Portrait Galley.

From informal and personal studies of friends and family, to revealing paintings of famous faces, this year’s exhibition features fifty-five works selected from 2,187 international entries. These include the four shortlisted artists – Aleah Chapin for “Auntie” , Alan Coulson for “Richie Culver”, Ignacio Estudillo for “El abuelo (Agustín Estudillo)” and Jamie Routley for “Tony Lewis” – as well as the work of the BP Travel Award 2011 winner Jo Fraser.

For the third year the exhibition will be complemented by the “BP Portrait Award: Next Generation” project. Inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a series of workshops and online resources offer young people new opportunities for learning and creativity through portraiture.

Ignacio Estudillo lives and works in Córdoba, Spain and studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Jerez de la Frontera, and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes of Seville. His work has been exhibited at ArtMadrid 2011 and is in the collection of Museu Europea D’Art Modern, MEAM.

His portrait is of his paternal grandfather. He says: ‘I worked with artificial light and with a chromatic scale, mainly within the black and white spectrum. I made this painting because of my grandfather and his life experiences attracted me. It’s not a purely analytical portrait of my grandfather, but it’s a way of showing a part of the human condition to which he belongs. At the same time I transmit his own nature and my idea of him as a conflicted, unstable, passionate human. I’m not only creating a portrait of my grandfather but also revealing a part of myself.’

The prize winners for the BP Portrait Award 2012 will be announced at an Awards Ceremony on 19 June 2012.

Source: National Portrait Gallery

Title: BP Portrait Award 2012
Place: National Portrait Gallery
City: London
Country: England
Dates: 21 June – 23 September, 2012