Since 2006, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition has invited artists to participate in a competition every three years. Participating artists must be at least 18 years old and live and work in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. The portraits to be judged by the jury—whether paintings or photographs—must have been created within the last three years. This time, the jury led by Taína Caragol, senior curator of painting and sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery and director of Outwin 2025, selected just over 30 works from more than 3,300 submissions. The exhibits will be on display in Washington, D.C., from January 24 to August 30 in the exhibition The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today.
First place in the competition comes with a prize of $25,000. Second and third place winners receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively. In the past, David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019), and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022) have each secured first place.
During the exhibition period, the works of a total of 19 finalists in the Teen Competition, divided into the age groups 13 to 15 and 16 to 17, will also be on display. First place went to Matilda Myers from Maryland for her photograph Rest and Kate Stermer from California for her photograph The Cost of Conformity.
