The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Announces Finalists and Shortlisted Artists for the “Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009”

The National Portrait Gallery has selected the artists whose work will be included in the “Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009.” The juried exhibition includes 49 works that will be on view from Oct. 23 through Aug. 22, 2010.

Of these works, submitted by people from across the nation, seven were selected for the short list. Each of these seven will win cash awards, and the first prize will include an award of $25,000 and a commission from the museum to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent  collection. The prizes will be announced in a private event Oct. 22. A list of the finalists follows at the end of this release.

“The second Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition represents a significant milestone for the National Portrait Gallery,” said Martin Sullivan, director of the museum. “We opened the entries to all visual arts media and received a wonderful response.”            

The competition received 3,300 entries in a variety of visual arts media, from digital animation and video to large-scale drawings, prints and photographs and a plethora of painted and sculpted portraits. It was open to artists working in the United States who had created portraits after Jan. 1, 2007, in any visual art form. The exhibition of the finalists’ works includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, photographs and video.

External jurors for the competition were Wanda M. Corn, professor emerita in art history at Stanford University; Kerry James Marshall, artist; Brian O’Doherty, artist and critic; and Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for The New Yorker. Jurors from the National Portrait Gallery were Martin E. Sullivan, director; Carolyn K. Carr, deputy director and chief curator; and Brandon Brame Fortune, curator of painting and sculpture.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication illustrating each of the 49 finalists’ works, including an essay by independent scholar Trevor Fairbrother. Distributed by the University of Washington Press, it will be available in the museum store for $14.95.

Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition

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 site 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 Jan. 24, 2010. The endowment from the late Virginia Outwin Boochever has enabled the museum to conduct a national portrait competition and exhibition that encourages artists to explore the art of portraiture.

National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the history of America through the individuals who have shaped its culture. Through the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists whose lives tell the American story.

The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at Eighth and F streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Information: (202) 633-1000; (202) 633-5285 (TTY). Web site: www.npg.si.edu.

Portrait Competition Finalists and Shortlisted Artists

Mequitta Ahuja, Houston

Jason Shaw Alexander, Los Angeles

Jen Bandini, Queens, N.Y.

Margaret Bowland, Brooklyn, N.Y.*

Benita Carr, Atlanta

Laura Chasman, Roslindale, Mass.

Mark Cummings, Newport Beach, Calif.

Yolanda del Amo, Brooklyn, N.Y.*

Armando Dominguez, Miami

Jenny Dubnau, Jackson Heights, N.Y.

Daniel Mark Duffy, Newtown, Conn.

David Eichenberg, Toledo, Ohio

Gaela Erwin, Louisville, Ky.*

Chambliss Giobbi, New York

David Gracie, Omaha, Neb.

Leor Grady, New York

Anne Harris, Riverside, Ill.

Patricia Horing, Larchmont, N.Y.

Anna Killian, Pensacola, Fla.

Erika Larsen, Hoboken, N.J.

David Dodge Lewis, Farmville, Va.

Lisa Lindvay, Chicago

Francesco Lombardo, Marshall, N.C.

Perin Mahler, Grand Rapids, Mich.

John Manion, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bruce McKaig, Washington, D.C.

Pavel Melecky, Arlington, Texas

Sam Messer, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Paul Mindell, Norwalk, Conn.

Matthew Mitchell, Amherst, Mass.

Samantha Mitchell, New York

Austin Parkhill, Arvada, Colo.

Sonia Paulino, Los Angeles

Cliffton Peacock, Charleston, S.C.

Stanley Rayfield, Richmond, Va.*

Emil Robinson, Cincinnati*

Kate Sammons, Los Angeles

Philip Schirmer, Sargentville, Maine

Justin Shaw, Lincoln, Neb.

Satomi Shirai, Astoria, N.Y.

Michael A. Smith, Ottsville, Pa.

Ben Tolman, Washington, D.C.

Jim Torok, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Anna Killian, Pensacola, Fla.

Erika Larsen, Hoboken, N.J.

David Dodge Lewis, Farmville, Va.

Lisa Lindvay, Chicago

Francesco Lombardo, Marshall, N.C.

Perin Mahler, Grand Rapids, Mich.

John Manion, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bruce McKaig, Washington, D.C.

Pavel Melecky, Arlington, Texas

Sam Messer, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Paul Mindell, Norwalk, Conn.

Matthew Mitchell, Amherst, Mass.

Samantha Mitchell, New York

Austin Parkhill, Arvada, Colo.

Sonia Paulino, Los Angeles

Cliffton Peacock, Charleston, S.C.

Stanley Rayfield, Richmond, Va.*

Emil Robinson, Cincinnati*

Margaret Trezevant, Tampa, Fla.

Lien Truong, Eureka, Calif.

Clarissa Payne Uvegi, New York

Adam Vinson, Jenkintown, Pa.*

Dave Woody, Fort Collins, Colo.*

John Randall Younger, Charlottesville, Va.

*Denotes artists on the shortlist.