Exhibition at Compton Verney celebrates nine years of Sky Arts' Portrait Artist of the Year
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, November 8, 2024


Exhibition at Compton Verney celebrates nine years of Sky Arts' Portrait Artist of the Year
Shanti Pannchal, The Wreck.



COMPTON VERNEY.- Compton Verney’s spring season begins with a celebration of nine years of Sky Arts’ most successful TV series, Portrait Artist of the Year.

This commemorative exhibition – a celebration of making - is curated by one of the programme’s judges, independent curator Kathleen Soriano. It features over 120 works, selected from the work of more than 1,000 artists who have taken part in the competition and associated Sky Arts TV programme since it was launched in 2013.

Over the years Portrait Artist of the Year has unearthed, encouraged, and nurtured portrait artists from all walks of life – teachers, surgeons, and security guards - amateur and professional artists, discovering new talents with many going on to establish successful careers make a living from their art.

Showcasing the sheer diversity of the different styles, media and approaches taken to portraiture, the exhibition will also display the work of all past winners with their subsequent prize commissions for major museums and galleries including the National Gallery of Ireland, the British Library and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

Several famous faces will return the viewer’s gaze, including celebrity sitters such as actors Kim Cattrall and Imelda Staunton, musicians Sir Tom Jones and Nile Rodgers, writers Dame Hilary Mantel and Lemn Sissay, plus broadcasting legends Lord Melvyn Bragg and Graham Norton.




The exhibition will highlight the power of art, not least of all for its ability to inspire both a sense of community and creativity during lockdown, especially in relation to supporting mental health and wellbeing. The international community of artists that developed as a direct consequence of the live-streamed Portrait Artist of the Week series on Facebook Live and Sky Arts, a direct response to initial pandemic lockdowns in early 2020, has been testament to the value and importance of bringing people together in a shared and creative experience.

Of course, for any portrait artist, there is no more readily available sitter than themselves - Rembrandt famously documented his changing appearance in dozens of known self-portraits - and Compton Verney devotes a significant amount of its exhibition to this genre. Self-portraiture is at the heart of Portrait Artist of the Year with applicants first submitting a self-portrait in order to enter the competition. It is from these that the judges select those who appear on the TV show, leading to startling and imaginative compositions as the artists vie to stand out from the crowd.

The densely hung walls of this section of the exhibition will be hung salon-style, illustrating the great breadth and range of approaches, as well as giving visitors an opportunity to explore each artist’s individual style, from Shanti Panchal’s instantly recognisable hand, which employs the colours of his native India, to Hun Adamoglu’s iconography filled painting that evokes his Cypriot origins; from Irish artist Conor Walton’s self-portrait as a centaur with a scorpion’s tail to Rosso Spotto’s tongue in cheek passport-photo style images.

Over the years some of our most celebrated academics, writers, comedians, actors, broadcasters and musicians have taken on the challenge of sitting still for 4 hours whilst they hope to inspire the talented artists tasked with capturing their likeness. The exhibition will feature some of the UK’s most recognisable and accomplished individuals from national treasures such as Tom Courtenay and John Cooper Clarke, to superstars of different artforms, including Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, Olympian boxer Amir Khan, The Vivienne, winner of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK 2019, ballet's Carlos Acosta and Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo.

Portrait Artist of the Year is a Storyvault Films production for Sky Arts.

Kathleen Soriano says: “It has been an honour and a privilege to be a judge, alongside Kate Bryan and Tai Shan Schierenberg, on ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’ over the last 9 years and to be celebrating the incredible talent that this Sky Arts TV programme has revealed, genuinely contributing to the development of portraiture and to our great national museum collections. Curating this exhibition for this incredible venue is extra special for me as I have very fond memories of my time there as Director.”

Julie Finch, Director CEO of Compton Verney says: “One of the most inspirational aspects of Portrait Artist of the Year is the way that it has democratised art, giving people both the confidence to speak about art and express their opinions without fear, and maybe even to pick up a brush or a pencil and create for themselves. That’s why we are so pleased to be hosting this glorious celebration of making at Compton Verney.”

Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts says: “Our three guiding principles at Sky Are Accessibility, Inclusivity and Participation… and ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’ embodies all of those pillars in one perfect programme. Over the years it has evolved into one of the most prestigious and certainly the best-known portrait painting competitions attracting a broad and diverse range of talent as well as encouraging deeper participation in the art form whilst doing a brilliant job of demystifying it along the way. We are thrilled that Kathleen and Compton Verney are staging this incredible exhibition to showcase the talent the show has featured over the years.”

Stuart Prebble, Chairman of Storyvault Films says: “It’s a rare privilege in TV to make a show in which everyone is a winner. Many of the 1000-plus artists who have appeared in the series have struggled for years to have their work more widely seen and appreciated, and our terrific production team is immensely proud to have kick-started so many brilliant careers. We warmly welcome Kathleen’s initiative in showcasing some of the best and most diverse work featured over nine years and thank Compton Verney and Sky Arts for making this outstanding exhibition possible.”










Today's News

February 19, 2022

In Orlando, 25 Basquiats come under the magnifying glass

Sotheby's to offer 30 works from the Macklowe Collection in dedicated New York auction

Proyectos Ultravioleta announces representation of Amalia Pica

Zwirner announces plans for new Los Angeles gallery

A city of the dead that inspires the living

Higher Pictures Generation opens exhibition of color photographs from Susan Meiselas' series Carnival Strippers

Bonhams announces New York Asia Week sale highlights for March 2022

Fondazione Prada opens the exhibition "Role Play"

Exhibition traces the evolution of art and design from the 1950s to the 1980s

Schirn Kunsthalle opens an exhibition dedicated to walking in contemporary art production

Honolulu Museum of Art hosts 14 artists and collectives as part of the Hawai'i Triennial 2022

Miller & Miller announces results of Online-only Canadiana & Folk Art auction

New exhibition at Hamburger Kunsthalle brings together a group of around thirty international artists

Albright-Knox Northland presents 'In These Truths'

Gem Mint 10 Pokemon Charizard among highlights in Heritage Auctions' trading card games event

Exhibition at Compton Verney celebrates nine years of Sky Arts' Portrait Artist of the Year

Gregory Peck's daughter and others keep 'Mockingbird' sequel rights

Eisenhower letter to West Point Grad's among President's Day memorabilia sold at auction

Goldin brokers record private deal for iconic Batman comic, listed on Rally for $1.8M

Sidney Miller, who championed Black music, dies at 89

Valerie Boyd, biographer of Zora Neale Hurston, Dies at 58

50 years later, the Rothko Chapel meets a new musical match

Columbus Museum of Art creates endowment to honor legacy of acclaimed artist Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson

UTA Artist Space opens an exhibition of works by Enrique Martínez Celaya

Art Wisdom: 10 Art Project Ideas to Find Inner Peace

Discover the Best iPhone 12 Trade-in Offers

Why invest in Art with Farhi Fine Art

MP3 Juice Experience With Free and Easy MP3 Downloading │ 2022

How to do Black & Gold Photography in your house

5 Innovative Tips for Improving Workplace Safety




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful