Aleah Chapin wins BP Portrait Award 2012
Auntie by Aleah Chapin © Aleah Chapin
The 2012 BP Portrait Award has been awarded to American painter, Aleah Chapin, who painted this large-scale portrait of a family friend, called ‘Auntie.’
The BP Portrait Award exhibition opens to the public on 21st June at the National Portrait Gallery, where work by both Chapin and the other painters shortlisted for the prestigious prize can be viewed.
Aleah Chapin wins a £25,000 prize plus a commission from the National Portrait Gallery – not bad for a 26-year old who just completed an MFA at the New York Academy of Art.
Chapin, who will certainly now be placed on the ones-to-watch list of contemporary figurative painters, paints female nudes she knows well, some who have known her all her life. She says of her model, “the fact that she has known me since birth is extremely important. Her body is a map of her journey through life. In her, I see the personification of strength through an unguarded and accepting presence.”
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BP Portrait Award 2012.
21st June – 23rd September 2012.
National Portrait Gallery, 2 St Martin’s Place, London, WC2H 0HE
Opening times: Open daily: 10am – 6pm; Thurs-Fri: 10am – 9pm.