WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has selected the portraits that will be included in the “Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.” The juried exhibition includes 48 works created from traditional media like oil paintings, drawings and photographs as well as more surprising materials such as rice, glitter, thread and video. The exhibition will be on view from March 23, 2013, through Feb. 23, 2014.

Of these pieces, submitted by artists from across the nation, seven were selected for the short list. Each of these seven artists will win cash awards, and the first prize will include an award of $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. The prizes will be announced in a private event March 22.

“The vision of Virginia Outwin Boochever was to increase awareness about portraiture as a vibrant art form,” said Wendy Wick Reaves, interim director of the museum. “I think that this installation will dazzle people with the wide variety of materials used to make portraits.”

The competition received more than 3,000 entries in a variety of visual arts media. Submissions included digital animation and video, large-scale drawings, prints, photographs, textiles, as well as painted and sculpted portraits. It was open to artists working in the United States who had created portraits after Jan. 1, 2010, in any visual art form.

External jurors for the competition were critic Peter Frank, artist Hung Liu, art historian Richard Powell, photographer Alec Soth, and National Portrait Gallery staff Brandon Brame Fortune, chief curator, Dorothy Moss, assistant curator of painting and sculpture, and Reaves.

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is a triennial event that invites figurative artists to submit entries in all media to be considered for prizes and display at the National Portrait Gallery. During the exhibition, museum and web visitors can vote for their favorite pieces as part of the “People’s Choice Award,” and winners of this part of the competition will be announced in September 2013.