BP Portrait Award 2020: Portraits of designer, actor and record shop owner make up shortlist
The three finalists for this year’s prestigious BP Portrait Award were announced today.
The portraits in the running to scoop the £35,000 first prize place are Night Talk by Jiab Prachakul; Portrait of Denis: Actor, Juggler and Fashion Model by Sergey Svetlakov; and Labour of Love by Michael Youds. It is the first time any of the artists have been shortlisted for the award or selected for exhibition.
Thai painter Prachakul’s Night Talk portrays the artist’s friends Jeonga Choi, a designer from Korea, and Makoto Sakamoto, a music composer from Japan, sitting in a Berlin bar on an autumn evening.
Russian painter Svetlakov’s work is of an aspiring actor, who the artist found through an internet advert.
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Meanwhile, Youds’ piece is of the owner of a record shop called Tommy Robertson in his hometown of Edinburgh.
The shortlisted portraits were selected from 1,981 entries from 69 countries. The prize winners will be announced on Tuesday, 5 May on the National Portrait Gallery’s social media channels.
The BP Portrait Award 2020 will open as a virtual exhibitions for Londoners to enjoy from home during the coronavirus lockdown.