Deadline:
26.01.2017

The BP Portrait Award is the most prestigious portrait painting competition in the world and represents the very best in contemporary portrait painting. With a first prize of £30,000, and a total prize fund of £61,000, the Award is aimed at encouraging artists to focus upon and develop portraiture in their work.

The competition is open to everyone aged 18 and over.

The BP Portrait Award 2017 exhibition will run at the National Portrait Gallery from 22 June to 24 September 2017. It is in its thirty-eighth year at the National Portrait Gallery and twenty-eighth year of sponsorship by BP and continues to be an unmissable highlight of the annual art calendar.

Paintings size:
Minimum size: 25cm x 20cm unframed.
Maximum size: 244cm x 244cm framed.
To be eligible for the BP Young Artist Award, artists must be 30 years of age or under as of 1 January 2017.
The competition is limited to one entry per artist. The work must have been completed after 1 January 2016.

Entry fee:
£40.00

Prizes:
From the exhibited artists, a number of cash prizes including the overall winner of the first prize of £30,000 will be awarded.
At the judges’ discretion, a commission worth £5,000, to be agreed between the National Portrait Gallery and the first prize artist will be awarded.
All selected artists aged between 18 and 30 will automatically be considered for both the BP Young Artist Award and the BP Portrait Award, but an individual cannot win both. If there are no exhibitors aged 30 or under then no Young Artist Award will be given and the funds so available shall be used to offer a Fourth Prize.
All exhibited artists, apart from those shortlisted for the First Prize, are eligible to submit a proposal for the BP Travel Award. The aim of the Award is to provide the opportunity for an artist to experience working in a different environment, in Britain or abroad, on a project related to portraiture which will then be shown as part of the BP Portrait Award 2018 exhibition and tour. The winner of this prize will receive £6,000.