Ingolv Helland (born 1974) is a Norwegian portraitist who has developed an international reputation.
In the 2007 exhibition for the prestigious BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom), Helland's self-portrait was one of only 60 artists selected to participate – out of 1870 entries – and his work was chosen to illustrate both the exhibition's poster and its catalogue. [1] [2]
Helland has an unusual background for a Norwegian portraitist. He prepared for university at St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, then took a degree at Amherst College, also in the United States. Following his studies he worked as a bond analyst in New York, while studying drawing at the Art Students League of New York in the evenings and privately with Michael Aviano on the weekends.
In 1997 Helland quit finance to focus on his art. He returned to his native Oslo in 2006.
Gilbert Charles Stuart was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washington, begun in 1796, which is sometimes referred to as the Athenaeum Portrait. Stuart retained the portrait and used it to paint scores of copies that were commissioned by patrons in America and abroad. The image of George Washington featured in the painting has appeared on the United States one-dollar bill for more than a century and on various postage stamps of the 19th century and early 20th century.
George Romney was an English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures – including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson.
The BP Portrait Award is an annual portraiture competition held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. It is the successor to the John Player Portrait Award. It is the most important portrait prize in the world, and is reputedly one of the most prestigious competitions in contemporary art.
Jonathan Yeo is a British artist who rose to international prominence in his early 20s as a contemporary portraitist, having painted Kevin Spacey, Dennis Hopper, Cara Delevingne, Damien Hirst, Prince Philip, Erin O'Connor, Tony Blair, and David Cameron among others. GQ has called him 'one of the world's most in-demand portraitists'. He was educated at Westminster School.
Tim Okamura is a current Canadian artist known for his depiction of subjects who are African-American in urban settings, and for his combination of graffiti and realism. His work has been featured in several major motion pictures and in London'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.
Keith Milow is a British artist, born in London (1945), grew up in Baldock, Hertfordshire, lived in New York City (1980–2002) and Amsterdam (2002–2014), now lives in London. He is an abstract sculptor, as well as a painter and printmaker. His work has been characterised as architectural, monumental, procedural, enigmatic and poetical.
Natalie Radina Holland is a Russian-born contemporary artist, formerly based in Norway and now working in England.
Sertan Saltan is a US-based Turkish artist whose work was acclaimed by international media after his winning of the BP Young Artist Award in 2011 He was born in Eskişehir, Turkey on 17 September 1982. He was publicized as the 'Best young artist of England' by the Turkish media such as Sabah (newspaper) and 'Dogan Haber Ajansi' a major news agency in Turkey. His work focuses on portraits, typically using oils as the primary media. He studied painting with Teymur Rzayev, a naturalistic painter, at his atelier in Istanbul before moving to the United States in 2006 to continue his studies at State University of New York where he attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. His work has been influenced by both Eastern and Western cultures. Mr. Saltan had several exhibitions in Turkey and the UK. Most recently he won the 'Young Artist Award' overall in the 2011 BP Portrait Award which is given to the top talented artists in their field from 2372 entries. He was also honored by the Commander of the Turkish Navy for his contributions to the naval exhibition in 2006.
Carl Randall is a British figurative painter, whose work is based on images of modern Japan and London.
Aleah Chapin is an American painter who won the BP Portrait Award in 2012.
Daniel Adel has worked as a portraitist, illustrator and fine artist since 1984. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times, and on magazine covers including The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and Time Magazine, for whom he painted two covers in 2004. His cover portrait of George W. Bush for Times's Person of the Year issue in 2004 is part of the collection of Washington, DC's National Portrait Gallery. His portrait of the former Speaker of the New York City Council, Gifford Miller, hangs in New York's City Hall. He has been commissioned to paint the Editors-in-Chief of Time, Der Spiegel, and Vanity Fair.
Miriam Escofet is a Spanish portrait painter who lives and works in London.
Tom Hallifax is an Anglo-Irish contemporary artist who came to prominence in 1993 when his gurning self-portraits were used to publicise the National Portrait Gallery's BP Portrait Award Exhibition. Hallifax, who has lived and worked in Belfast, London, and in a remote cottage on an island off Donegal, currently resides in Dorset.
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.
Andrew Tift is a British realist portraitist.
Sandro Kopp is a German/New Zealand visual artist, based in the Highlands of Scotland. His work deals with the concept of "mediated presence" and explores the intersection of classical painting and digital technology.
Gentian Lulani, better known as Gentian is an Albanian artist.
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.
Hynek Martinec is a Czech-British painter, who graduated from the Studio of Classical Painting Techniques under the supervision of Prof. Zdeněk Beran at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague. After his studies he left for Paris (2005-2007) and since 2007 has been living in London. He received the prestigious BP Young Artist Award (2007) for his hyperrealistic portraits. His paintings are inspired by Old Masters and/or photographs, which link the past with the future, using modern technologies.