BP Portrait Award 2008 - Exhibitor 1

First Prize

K
by Craig Wylie
Oil on canvas, 2100 x 1650mm (82 5/8 x 65")
© the artist

Craig Wylie (b 17.06.1973) was shortlisted for the first time this year, having been included in the BP Portrait Award exhibition for the past three years. His winning portrait of his girlfriend, Katherine Raw, is based on sittings from his Hackney Wick studio in 2005. He made two previous attempts at the painting through 2006, starting the final version in 2007. 'On one level the viewer's intrusion into the sitter's emotional state is tacitly accepted,' he says, 'on another it is positively rebuffed.' Craig now lives and works in London. He graduated in fine art from Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa in 1996 and has exhibited widely.

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