15th International ARC Salon
The Art Renewal Center is pleased to present the winners and finalists of the 15th International ARC Salon Competition! This year the ARC received 4,941 entries from 83 countries. For the first time we introduced a semi-finalist round and are presenting both finalists and semi-finalists in these competition results, as we are proud to host the images of all these works for public view. 40% of entries, which translates as 1,977 works, qualified as semi-finalists, which is in and of itself a great accomplishment, as there were a large number of very fine works that did not qualify as semi-finalists. Our ARC Salon Finalists comprise of a select group of the very top-rated entries, 1,155 works in all, or 23% of entries.
ARC has acquired 11 new works for the ARC collection, valued at over $140,000. Our highest award, Best in Show, which is a $25,000 prize, has gone to Robert Liberace (USA) for his entry of “Spartan”, originally entered into the Portrait Category. In this painting he depicts his daughter, Ava, conveying her “warrior spirit”. Using a multitude of flesh tones Liberace was able to accurately render a powerful manifestation of strength and aggression both in expression and body language. Although only a captured moment in time, the subject’s hair is already beginning to loosen from her braid and there is a slight echoing effect around her arms of the shadow’s contour, signaling she has already been battling. The onlooker’s viewpoint is from slightly below, as Ava looks down at her spectators. Between the viewpoint, the echoing effect of her arms, and the looser paint handling, there is almost an impression of blurry vision and a falling sensation. Perhaps the viewer has just lost a battle with this young warrior and is on their way down for the count. In addition to winning Best in Show, “Spartan” has also won an ARC Purchase Award with an additional prize amount.
A special congratulations is also due to Russian artist, Evgeniy Monahov, who has won the Bouguereau Award this year as well as an ARC Purchase Award for his painting of “Girl With a Gun.” This powerful image of a young girl, perhaps 13 to 15 years of age, engages the viewer directly generating a sense of fear mixed with strength. It is only after first meeting her eyes that the viewer notices the bruises and injuries that cover her body and that she is also holding a gun. It is unsure if she has already defended herself or is about to do so, but it is clear she has been the victim of an abusive situation. It might also worry the viewer that this young subject could be contemplating suicide as result of her trauma. Ultimately the subject of the work is lost innocence, which is further communicated by what appears to be a collapsed stuffed animal at her side. In addition to this powerful and poignant work, Monahov has won Best Nude for his work of “Passion for Color”, and a Dual Category Award and a second ARC Purchase Award for “Windmills of your Mind”.
Another big winner in this year’s competition is Dominic Avant. His elegant work of “Repose,” which shows an immense understanding of the human figure, composition and light, has won him four awards and recognitions in this year’s competition for this single work, winning an Honorable Mention in the Figurative Category, a Fashion Week San Diego Award, The Artists & Illustrators Magazine Award and was one of five works selected to be featured by Collections Magazine in China.
Special congratulations are also due to all eleven of our first place category winners: Duffy Sheridan for his introspective work of “Something I Don’t Know” (Figurative Category), Shuang Liu, for his sensitively rendered portrait of “Maria Antonia” (Portrait Category), Arantza Sestayo for her creative take on the Snow White story in “Seven Hearts” (Imaginative Realism Category), Julie Beck, for her homage to science in “The Hundredth Monkey” (Still Life Category), Gavin Glakas, for “An Appointment in Siena” (Landscape Category), César Orrico for “Fauno” (Sculpture Category), Mario Javoran for “Mediterraneo” (Drawing Category), Kyle Ma for “Sunlit Pastures” (Animal Category), Eirik Arnesen for “Empyrean” (Fully From Life Category), Tim Kelly for “Welcome to Manayunk” (Plein Air Category), and Anne Goldman, our 17 year old winner of the Teens Category, for her drawing of “Mother and Daughter”.
Come join us for the 15th International ARC Salon Exhibition, consisting of 103 works from around the globe. We are extremely pleased to announce that we will be formally exhibiting the 15th ARC Salon Exhibition at Sotheby’s flagship New York City location! Sotheby’s NY is the premier destination for auction and private sales. We are thrilled to be showing at this prestigious venue which will undoubtedly showcase the 21st Century Representational Art Movement to an elite audience of collectors and art enthusiasts. The show is scheduled to first open at Sotheby’s July 16 - 26, 2021, and then the show will travel on to the European Museum of Modern Art, (MEAM) in Barcelona, Spain from October 8th, 2021 – December 12th, 2021, where it will hang alongside the MEAM’s representational painting and sculpture competition, Figurativas. A joint award ceremony will be held on October 8th at the MEAM. This awe-inspiring international event will showcase the true international nature and collaborative spirit of this new wave in contemporary art.
Updates and additional information about the exhibition can be found on the Live Exhibition page.
For the first seven days the results are live on the ARC website, from January 13 – January 19th, we will be holding an election for our People's Choice Award! Visitors to the ARC website are able to vote for up to 10 of their favorite finalists or winning works. The winner will receive $1,000 cash and a full page in the 15th ARC Salon publication, International Realism, to be published by ACC Art Books, a division of a global publisher. The winner will receive $1,000 cash and a full page in the ARC Salon Book to be published by ACC Art Books, a division of a global publisher. Visit the People's Choice Award section on the ARC Salon results pages and click on the vote button below the works of your choice to cast your votes. Visitors will be prompted to login or create a free account so that we can track votes and prevent users from voting more than once. The winner will be revealed for this final award on January 22nd, 2021.
We have two museum awards, a Purchase Award given out by the MEAM Museum in Barcelona Spain, which went to Albert Kozak for his sculpture of “Behold the Man – Eva” and an exhibition award given out by the Springville Museum of Art, which went to “The Space Between” by Lis Pardoe. The Springville Museum has devoted a "Featured ARC Artist" gallery wall to their museum in their Founders Gallery, to be awarded to a new artist each ARC Salon Competition. Pardoe will have the opportunity to have a series of works hung at this prestigious location for the duration of this time period.
We are also excited to be having our third partnership with Fashion Week San Diego, where FWSD designers will be matched with the nine winning artists' works and the designers will then create an original couture outfit and “look” inspired by each of the nine works of art chosen from the ARC Salon. After the first successful event at FWSD in San Diego, October, 2018, we decided we wanted to bring this event to NY while the ARC Salon Exhibition as a whole was on view. The ARC Salon winning works along with the specially designed garments will be débuted at Sotheby’s NY July 24th in a singular event.
Also, eight magazines have participated: Fine Art Connoisseur, PleinAir Magazine, PoetsArtists, Enchanted Living Magazine, Collections Magazine, Southwest Art Magazine, The Artist Magazine, and Artists & Illustrators Magazine have given out awards to a total of 13 artists, and the chosen artists will each be featured in articles in one of these prominent publications. We will also be working with Rehs Contemporary Galleries once again to mount an exhibition and sale for artists chosen by this gallery from ARC Salon Finalists. This year Rehs has selected eight artists to participate: Arantza Sestayo, Annie Robinson, Marina Marina, Jesús Inglés, Bruce Lawes, Alexandra Klimas, Roman Pankov, and Anne-Marie Zanetti. View the Other Awards Page to learn more about this exciting show.
For the first year we have also offered the Figurative Art Convention & Expo (FACE) Award, which went to Bart Janssen for his work of “The Girl from Cape Verde”. the Figurative Art Convention and Expo (FACE), created by Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine and the Realism Today newsletter will take place from November 6 – 10, 2021 in Williamsburg VA. To learn more about this award and exciting event visit the Other Awards page.
A big thank you goes out to our 21 ARC Salon Category Jurors this year, who have donated their time and efforts in selecting, in addition to Best in Show, the First, Second, and Third Place awards in our eleven categories (Figurative, Portraiture, Imaginative Realism, Drawing, Sculpture, Landscape, Plein Air, Still Life, Animals, Fully From Life, and the Teens Category), as well as our special awards for Most Ambitious Work, which went to Orley Ypon for his work of “Rave Party”, Best Nude, which went to Evgeniy Monahov for “Passion of Color”, Best Social Commentary which went to Philippe Attie for his painting of “Imprints”, Best Trompe l'Oeil, which went to Natalie Featherston for her work of “Nesting Instinct”, Best Pastel, which went to Aurelio Rodriguez Lopez for “The Caress of Water”, Best Watercolor, which went to Xi Guo for “A Portrait of a Boston Fern”, and our Dual Category Awards. We would also like to thank an additional group of over 25 jurors who were involved in selecting our awards given out by partnering organizations. The 15th ARC Competition has been a combined effort of over 40 jurors, the incredible ARC Staff and all of our participating artists. Altogether, 208 awards and honorable mentions have been given out.
We can’t thank everyone enough for helping to make this international competition a great success. A special congratulations is due to all of our winners and finalists!
We will be accepting entries to the next, 16th International ARC Salon Competition from March 1st, 2022 through June 16th, 2022.
To pre-order your copy of the 15th International ARC Salon Book, International Realism, featuring all winners, honorable mentions and finalists and published by ACC Art Books, click here.
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