Today, at the National Portrait Gallery, the winner of the Digital Portraiture Award 2016 was announced. Congratulations to Amiel Courtin-Wilson for his submission titled Charles.
Amiel receives $10,000 cash and a residency at The Edge, State Library of Queensland, valued at $15,000.
Gillian Raymond, Digital Manager at the Portrait Gallery and one of the judges for this year’s Award, was moved by the depth of Amiel’s portrait and the outstanding use of the digital medium to convey a story.
‘The Digital Portraiture Award enables the National Portrait Gallery to actively challenge conservative notions of portraiture. Indeed, this is as much an exhibition about the genre of portraiture as it is about digital art,’ said Gillian.
‘This year’s finalists explore the boundaries between performance and portraiture, biology and portraiture, advertising and portraiture. They riff on themes of artistic disillusionment, self-discovery and the development of identity. In the end, the judges were won over by the technical mastery of the winning work combined with the empathetic and poignant depiction of its subject.’
Amiel was extraordinarily touched that his work has been recognised by The National Portrait Gallery and is honoured to be a part of the group exhibition.
‘The portraiture I find most inspiring takes seed in your body and creates a visceral response before the intellect can take hold,’ said Amiel
‘I look forward to being able to continue to create images borne of simple but profound human interactions with this very generous amount of prize money.'
‘I have been making films and working with the moving image for over twenty years and my cinematographer Germain McMicking has been creating work with me for over fifteen years so this award is for Germain as well. I want to thank Charles, the producers Kate Laurie and John Baker as well as everyone who helped contribute to the work.’
‘I am also excited to take part in an upcoming residency at The Edge in Queensland and look forward to a new fertile environment in which to create and forge new creative relationships.’
Amiel’s winning work will be on display with six other finalists in the Digital Portraiture Award 2016 exhibition which is open to the public from Friday 2 December 2016 until Sunday 9 April 2017.
The finalists' works are available to view on the Gallery's vimeo page.
