The competition is made possible by the Virginia Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever and continued by her children.
26 October 2019-30 August 2020
Award
26 October 2019–30 August 2021
Deborah Roberts is selected for the touring exhibition 'The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today'
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today features work by nearly 50 finalists of National Portrait Gallery's latest Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. The exhibition encompasses a wide range of media including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, installation and performance. Deborah Roberts' recent collage '80 Days (Nessun Dorma Series)' is amongst the works selected for inclusion. The exhibition tours from National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. to Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri and Alaska State Museum, Juneau, Alaska (2019–2021).
The portraits on display were selected through an open call that garnered more than 2,600 entries from artists working in the USA and Puerto Rico. For the first time in the triennial's history, the museum requested that submissions respond "to the current and political and social context". As a result, the exhibition offers perspectives on some of the most topical issues of the present day.
