Sunday, May 31, 2026

Selected Artists (Part 2: I - Y) for The Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery

This is Part 2 of my post about the artists selected for the Annual Exhibition of the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026.

It's rather longer this year as most of the artists have been sending me their portraits - see below!

You can also read my previous post Selected Artists (Part 1: A-H) for The Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery


Artists Selected for The Portrait Award 2026

There's a lot of artists selected for the first time in this half of the 52 artists selected for this year's exhibition.
The Portrait Award too is an amazing event. It’s like the Oscars of the Portrait Painters world (for those who don’t know or might be unfamiliar with the name of the current sponsor)....I am… utterly gobsmacked. And won’t probably really truly believe it until I’m standing there next to my painting in June. Ros Koch

Selected artists who want to see my photos of past exhibitors - taken on the Artists Press View morning - should take a look at my reference where they all my "Artists with their Paintings" posts are listed.

Selected Artist Statistics

I'm proposing to do a statistical analysis of the artists ( re. male/female; country; first/previous exhibitor) as the National Portrait Gallery has not published one this year. I publish this in another post.


PART TWO


This covers the artists whose surnames start with "I" through to those who start with "Y".

Links to their websites are embedded in their names - and Instagram accounts indicated if they have one (that can be found easily!)

I've also indicated which artists are prior exhibitors - and the years in which they exhibited. All other artists are First Time Exhibitors.

  • Shinji Ihara (Instagram) - (Prior Exhibitor - 2024, 2025) - a painter and contemporary artist based in Hiroshima, Japan. Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1987, he received his MFA in Oil Painting from the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. He is the Founder of HDL+ (formerly Hiroshima Drawing Lab), an artist-run space in Hiroshima. He has had multiple solo exhibitions in Tokyo and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Japan and internationally, including Asia and Europe. Previously selected for the Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in 2024 and 2025. I predicted he would be back again and I believe him to be a future prizewinner. 
Working primarily through painting, Ihara explores memory, relationships, and the position of the individual within society. Portraiture has been central to his practice, through which he examines the dynamics between seeing and being seen, presence and distance

After the rain, we remain by Shinji Ihara
oil on canvas, h72.7 × w91 cm
© Shinji Ihara
J
People have called me an illustrator, cartoonist, designer and a creative. But I think for me, whatever you call it - I call it making pictures.
K
  • Ros Koch (Instagram) - Contemporary South African painter. Born in the UK and she has lived in South Africa since 1998. Paints landscapes and portraits. Ros is a self-taught artist, who - thanks to traditional parents and schooling - took a long time to allow herself to transition from ‘art as hobby’ to ‘art as a career’
The Age of Adolescence (2024) by Ros Koch
Oil on board, framed in Kiaat; 250 x 250mm 
© Ros Koch
The fact that THIS painting - my first ever submission to the HSFK Portrait award - has been accepted to hang in the NPG is a beautiful full circle moment for me. It’s a coming of age (both in its title and artistic affirmation) and homecoming of sorts. Like many other artists, I used to go to the NPG as a child, always drawn to the people and their lives. And it is truly serendipitous that this one has been selected as its subject matter is so immensely meaningful and deeply personal to me, representing the intersection of things things I feel most passionate about.
M
  • Niall MacArthur - a British painter living near Rye in East Sussex. Prior to pursuing painting full-time, MacArthur was a globetrotting investment banker and the co-founder of the UK-based EAT sandwich bar chain. Has exhibited a portrait at the Scottish Portrait Awards (or he may be two different people - neither of which have a website and only a private Instagram!)
N
  • Karin Neijenhuis - Born 1974 in Breda in the Netherlands, where she still lives. She primarily paints portraits in oil on canvas or panel. Her focus is on portraits and her work is realistic, often colorful, and narrative in nature. She draws her inspiration from everyday life—her own and that of those around her. 
Especially from subjects or moments that are not necessarily special or beautiful. But they can be decisive. And most people can identify with them in one way or another. Household chores, for example.
Useless, part I (2023) by Karin Neijenhuis
oil paint on panel, h 15cm x w 15cm
© Karin Neijenhuis

O
  • Yejin Oh (Instagram) - b.1997 and based in Korea. Graduated from Kingston University with a degree in fine art in 2023. She has participated in a number of exhibitions in Korea and Art Fairs in Asia
this exists both as a portrait of my grandmother’s youth and as an indirect self-portrait.

Her-in Her Twenties(1964), 2025, 
Oil on canvas, 27.3x34.8cm
© Yejin Oh 

  • Margaret O’Hare - a classically-trained painter based in Florence, Italy. She earned a Bachelor of Arts with distinction in English from the University of Virginia. She currently studies and teaches at Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy. Margaret specialises in portraiture and works from life using the sight-size method. She has exhibited paintings in Florence and London. This year she was Selected with Distinction for The 28th Annual International Competition, The Portrait Society of America 
P
  • Rosie Phillips (Instagram) - born in Cardiff in 1991 but grew up in North Norfolk and now lives/works in Norwich. She is a professional artist who also works as an art technician and tutor. She was a contestant on Portrait Artist of the Year in 2022 (S9 H5) and 2024 (S11 H7) - both with impressive full figure submissions - and was shortlisted in both series and won her heat in 2024 and participated in the semi final. She is self taught (i.e. not been to art school) but has been heavily invested in developing both her practice and career since an early age via competitions and exhibitions and building a body of commissioned and original work. This has resulted in a number of awards. Very unfortunately she had her Instagram account disabled in error and despite efforts to retrieve it has had to start again with a new one. (Links to PAOTY in this post are to my reviews of the PAOTY episodes)
Familiar figures and animals often occupy my paintings. I like to observe informal, playful and/or domestic moments, towing the line between the abstract and the figurative.

Nest by Rosie Phillips
oil on linen, 40 x 60 cm
© Rosie Phillips
  • Caroline Pool (Instagram) - A multi award winning artist who grew up in Bangkok, Thailand and now who lives and works in South Shropshire. Graduated from Brighton University with a BA (HONS) Illustration degree at Brighton University after a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at Central St Martin’s, London. Initially worked in set design for feature films before returning to painting. Her portraiture typically explores ageing and the stories of people that otherwise might be lost.
Dark Passenger (self portrait) by Caroline Pool
oil on canvas, 30 x 40cm
© Caroline Pool


Louise Pragnell (Instagram) a London-based British contemporary portrait artist. Her work ranges from intimate individual commissions to ambitious, large-scale group portraits. In October 2025 she painted a full length portrait of the Princess Royal unveiled at Worshipful Company of Saddlers.
Pops Mensah-Bonsu is a London-born former NBA player and former President of G-League Operations for the New York Knicks, now serving as an Ambassador for the NBA’s Basketball Africa League. 
I first met him in Ghana during the @omenaafoundation 10th Anniversary celebrations in Accra. Over several days, I was struck by his presence, not only as a former NBA player, but also by the way he engaged with children and community, particularly at the Omenaa Foundation Kids Haven School, and their delighted response to him. 
He spoke openly about heritage, responsibility, and the path basketball had taken him from London to international success, and ultimately back to Ghana, his family’s homeland. 

  • Sarah Quick (Instagram) - A Canadian artist who has been living in County Laois, Ireland since 2011. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (with distinction) from Mount Allison University in Canada. Her portrait is of her husband Mark and is titled ‘Another Day’. It was painted over the month of December 2025 as they were moving house with their two young boys. 100cmx80cm oil on canvas, 

R
  • Anji Richards (Instagram) - Anji has entered twice, once in 2022 when she did not get shortlisted and this year - when she was.  Her painting "Red Shoes" is Acrylic on canvas, measuring 61 x 76.3cm unframed
  • Tania Rivilis - born 1986 in Ukraine, Tania moved to Germany. She started painting there at 27. In the last 12 years, she has received the prestigious William Lock Prize, exhibited in four successive years at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - and I met at one of these. She has also been be nominated for several big prizes. Her artwork has also been shown on large billboards in Times Square, as well as in galleries and fairs across the Europe and US. 
    • Rooted in the portrait genre, Rivilis investigates how identity is shaped by the gaze—both of others and of oneself within the pictorial space.
    Almost Real (2025) by Tania Rivilis
    40x40cm / 15.7×15.7 Inch, Oil on plywood panel
    © Tania Rivilis
  • Emily Rogers (Instagram) - a British painter, born in Oxford in 1996 and currently living in London. She attended Oxford Brookes University (Art Foundation); graduated from Leeds Arts University with a degree in Fine Arts in 2018 and then moved moved to Florence, Italy, and began studying "sight-size" and the techniques of the old masters at the Charles H Cecil Studios. She works on commissioned portraits at her studio in Kensington and periodically provides instruction at the Charles H. Cecil Studios.
  • Doris Rose - a contemporary-realist portrait painter based in Ontario, Canada. Born in the UK and raised in Canada since 2000, she holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from OCAD University (2013), where she received the top entrance scholarship. Specialising in old master and photorealistic oil painting techniques, she is best known for her popular art education posts and her thought-provoking portraiture series Blur, which explores the perceptual distortions of chronic migraine and ADHD. With over 260,000 followers and 150 million total views across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, Doris has built one of Canada's most engaged art communities online.
Stripes (Self-Portrait) (2025) by Doris Rose
Oil on Copper, 18” x 24”
© Doris Rose


S
  • Daniel Sequiera - ‘Mzee’ is a portrait of his father. Other than that this artist does not share personal info. o his website but another website tells me he was born in Surrey in 1983, and has focussed completely on painting since 2014. He previously worked as a graphic designer before completing a year of academic drawing. His persistence with entries - like others selected this year - demonstrates that you should never give up!
I’ve been entering this competition for years now and I believe this is my eighth entry. Managed to get to the second round a few times but never over the line. Thrilled to have been accepted this year with this painting of my Dad and to be displayed with so many incredible painters in an institution with some of my favourite contemporary and historical portrait paintings of all time.
  • Gustavo Schossler (Instagram) - Previous exhibitor (2024) Gustavo is a Brazilian painter and designer. studied drawing and painting at Studio Escalier in France and under artist Anthony Ryder in Santa Fe, USA. Schossler has exhibited in Brazil and internationally. He is a five-time award recipient at the Salão de Belas Artes de Piracicaba, one of Brazil's longest-running and most respected art exhibitions. He maintains a studio in Porto Alegre, where he works and teaches, and also serves as an assistant instructor at Studio Escalier in France."
It's a great honor to exhibit in a space that has hosted and continues to host so many important names in painting.

"Sheikh in blue" by Gustavo Schossler
Oil on linen, 45x39cm
© Gustavo Schossler
W

Portrait Award 29024: Isabella Watling (left) winning her second prize
  • Isabella Watling (Instagram) - Previous Exhibitor (2012, 2014, 2024), won second prize in 2024. Born in London in 1990, Isabella her early years in the UK and Australia. She now lives and works in London. From the age of 18 she trained at the Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence where she received a rigorous training in sight-size portraiture. She returns periodically to teach portrait and figure painting. She has just painted a portrait of LMH alumna and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai. No indication on website or insta as to what her portrait is.
  • Colin Watson - (Previous Exhibitor 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997) Lives and works in Belfast. He is regularly selected for major competitive art exhibitions in Ireland, where he has won major awards, and the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. In October 2008, Colin was invited by HRH The Prince of Wales to accompany him on the Royal Tour of Japan, Brunei and Indonesia, as his official Tour Artist. He's particularly good at painting people in landscapes.
"Eid: Portrait of my wife and daughter" (2026) 
by Colin Watson
Oil on panel, 360 x 255mm
© Colin Watson
Delighted this small painting will be hanging in the National Portrait Gallery this summer in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award exhibition.
Y
  • Ran You (Instagram) - born in Beijing, China, in 1991. Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Now lives and works in Hamburg, Germany.
For me, portrait painting is not only about appearance, but also about trying to capture something internal that cannot be easily explained in words.
North Wind (2026) by Ran You
Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50cm
© Ran You
North Wind is a portrait of myself and my partner, who is a composer. Over the past several years, we have built our life together in Germany. The painting grew out of a quiet but persistent sense of uncertainty. In recent years, both the broader social atmosphere and the experience of living abroad as an Asian artist have made it difficult not to feel a growing sense of distance, instability, and emotional coldness. Over time, these feelings inevitably enter everyday life in subtle ways.

 

Artists with their Paintings


You'll see more of (some of) these artists in my post titled (every year) "Artists with their Paintings." (See reference below for links to the posts)

After the Awards Ceremony, there is an Artists Press View the following morning where I try to take photos of as many artists as I can - with their portrait - while talking to them about their lives and portraiture! I'm very very tired at the end!!

REFERENCE: 

I've been covering this competition since 2007!

HSFK Portrait Award 2026

Artists with their Paintings (2015-2025)

Just over 10 years ago, I decided that I'd dedicate a post to pics of artists with their paintings. Particularly the interesting ones and/or the ones I liked!
The Gallery was closed during Covid and then for three years of refurbishment and reopened in 2024.
Posted by Making A Mark on Sunday, May 31, 2026
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