The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world that was dedicated to portraits.
Sir William Dobell was an Australian portrait and landscape artist of the 20th century. Dobell won the Archibald Prize, Australia's premier award for portrait artists on three occasions. The Dobell Prize is named in his honour.
Evert Ploeg is one of Australia's most highly regarded portrait painters, who has won a range of painting prizes, such as the 1999 and 2007 Archibald Prize and was awarded the highly coveted 'Signature Status' of The Portrait Society of America.
Antony Micallef is a British contemporary artist and painter working in London.
Stuart Pearson Wright is an English portrait artist, winner of the BP Portrait Award.
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a charity based at Carlton House Terrace, SW1, London that promotes the practice and appreciation of portraiture art.
Alison Watt OBE FRSE RSA is a British painter who first came to national attention while still at college when she won the 1987 Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Jonathan Yeo is a British artist of contemporary portraiture who was educated at Westminster School. He rose to prominence for having painted Kevin Spacey, Dennis Hopper, and Cara Delevingne, among others. GQ described him as "one of the world's most in-demand portraitists."
Sara Shamma is a UK-based Syrian artist whose paintings are figurative in style. The importance of storytelling and narrative is paramount in her work. Shamma has a long-standing interest in the psychology associated with the suffering of individuals and has made work on the subject of war, modern slavery and human trafficking. Her works can be divided into series that reflect prolonged periods of research.
Tim Okamura is a Japanese Canadian artist known for his contemporary realist portraits that combine graffiti and realism. His work has been on the cover of Time Magazine and has been featured in several major motion pictures. Okamura's paintings are featured in major permanent collections around the world such as London's National Portrait Gallery and Washington DC's National Portrait Gallery. He was also one of several artists to be shortlisted in 2006 for a proposed portrait of Queen Elizabeth of England.
Vincent Michael Brown is an English artist and portrait painter, composer and musician, and co-founder of Browns' Arts Centre, an art school and studio located at The Clock Tower Association in Warmley, Bristol.
Ian Cumberland is an Irish visual artist. He was born in Banbridge, Co. Down, 1983. His work focuses on portraits with his paintings typically using oils as the primary media. He studied fine art at the University of Ulster. He has won several prizes, the most significant of which was the Davy Portrait Award in 2010. In 2019 and 2020 Cumberland deals in his work with increased commercialization, technological development and its effects on the individual. In doing so, he creates scenes that seem like a private snapshot and transport the viewer into a voyeuristic experience. He develops these by integrating his paintings into an installation consisting of audio and video works, neon light, sculptures and other plastic materials. Through this kind of deconstruction of his created sceneries he achieves a visual construction that alienates the human being within his culture, the influence of the mass media and data surveillance.
Irene Ferguson is an artist best known for her portrait paintings. Ferguson was awarded the New Zealand Portraiture Award in 2008.
Carl Randall is a British figurative painter, whose work is based on images of modern Japan and London.
Paul Benney is a British artist who rose to international prominence as a contemporary artist whilst living and working in New York in the 1980s and 1990s in the UK as an award-winning portraitist.
Lionel Smit is a South African artist, known for his contemporary portraiture executed through large canvases and sculptures.
Frances Borden is a British artist known for portraiture, particularly self-portraiture. She has been a prizewinner in the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London on three occasions.
Raoof Haghighi is an Iranian-born British artist, known for his portraiture and realism.
Henry Ward is a British artist, who in 2010 was selected to exhibit his entry of The 'Finger-Assisted' Nephrectomy of Professor Nadey Hakim at the ‘BP Portrait Award’ at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and in 2016 was chosen to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II to mark her 60-year tenure as the longest-serving patron of the British Red Cross.
Jan Mikulka is a Czech painter. He is known for his still-life painting and figurative and portrait work. In 2011 he won the Visitors's Choice BP Portrait Award in the National Portrait Gallery competition. He has twice succeeded in the international competition announced by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in London, a showcase of contemporary portraiture. In 2013, he won the first prize for a self-portrait, and in 2016 The Changing Faces Prize, also awarded by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
