32 year old Isobel Peachey is an accomplished award-winning portrait artist and last year was the youngest artist to paint Queen Elizabeth II. This year her portrait is of a friend known to the public as R.H.

The annual BP Portrait Award is the most prestigious portrait competition in the world, promoting the very best in contemporary portrait painting. Over the past thirty-two years the Award has proved the launch pad for the careers of many successful portrait artists.

From intimate and personal images of friends and family, to revealing paintings of celebrity sitters, the exhibition presents a variety of styles and approaches that together illustrate the outstanding and innovative work currently being produced by artists of all ages and nationalities.

This year’s exhibition, featuring fifty-five works selected from a record 2,372 international entries, includes the four shortlisted artists – four shortlisted artists – Ian Cumberland for Just to Feel Normal, Wim Heldens for Distracted, Sertan Saltan for Mrs Cerna and Louis Smith for Holly – as well as the BP Travel Award 2010 winner, Florence-based American artist Paul Beel.

For the second year the exhibition will be complemented by the BP Portrait Award: Next Generation project. Inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, BP Portrait Award: Next Generation gives opportunities for young people aged 14-19 to engage with portraiture. This year, young people can meet BP Portrait Award artists in short Taster Sessions over the London 2012 Open Weekend in July and in three-day Summer Schools in August, and upload their own portraits on the new project website: www.npg.org.uk/bpnextgeneration

Going to the Exhibition
The exhibition runs from 16 June - 18 September 2011
Admission Free

Opening hours
Saturday - Wednesday 10.00 - 18.00
Closure commences at 17.50
Thursdays and Fridays until 21.00
Closure commences at 20.50

Address:
St Martin's Place, London WC2H 0HE

Nearest London Underground: Leicester Square / Charing Cross

Rail: Charing Cross

Buses to Trafalgar Square

Street ramp/shop entrance in St Martin's Place

Recorded information: 020 7312 2463

June 24, 2011