Photography Contest

ING Discerning Eye
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CLOSEDTheme |
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OtherEligibility |
UK ArtistsEntry Fees |
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The Discerning EyeThe ING Discerning Eye exhibition announces its 2025 call for entries and selectors, each recognised as a tastemaker and influencer in the art world.
Sponsored by global bank ING, the open exhibition gives artists the opportunity to show their work to six distinguished selectors, exhibit in central London, and win prizes totalling over £13,000.
The prizes include the ING Purchase Prize, worth £5,000, and celebrate a wide range of art media (including print, sculpture, landscape, and portrait) from all regions across the UK.
The exhibition will open at the Mall Galleries from 14 to 23 November alongside a virtual gallery showcasing all the artists’ shortlisted works with commentary and introductions by the selectors. Awards will be given out to the winners in a prize-giving at the start of the exhibition.
The Discerning Eye is an educational charity, established in the UK in 1990, to encourage a wider understanding and appreciation of the visual arts and to stimulate debate about the place and purpose of art in our society, and the contribution each one of us can make to its development.
The exhibition comprises both publicly submitted works and works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: artists, collectors, and critics. Each section is hung separately to give each its own distinctive identity. The impression emerges of six small exhibitions within the whole.
It provides an unusual opportunity for works by lesser-known artists to be hung alongside contributions from internationally recognised names. The selectors are solely responsible for their own selection; selection is not by committee. The only restrictions are limitations on size (only small works are permitted) and to select at least 33% of their section from the open submission.
All shortlisted artists will be eligible to win the following prizes:
The ING Purchase Prize, £5,000
The Discerning Eye Founder’s Prize - in honour of Michael Reynolds, £2,500
The Discerning Eye Chair’s Purchase Prize, £1,000
The Mervyn Metcalf Purchase Prize, £500
Parker Harris Prize: one year’s subscription to The Art Ladder mentoring programme for artists, and two one-to-one mentoring sessions, worth £600
The Discerning Eye Sculpture Prize, £300
The Discerning Eye Cityscape Prize, £300
The Discerning Eye Landscape Prize, £300
The Discerning Eye Portrait Prize, £300
The Discerning Eye Print Prize, £300
Regional Prizes, up to 7 prizes of £300 each
Tabish Khan’s Critic Purchase Prize, £200
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