Tartget Prize: Jury to Select Winners from 100 Finalist Works Across 24 Countries Exhibition at the Ateneo from June 5
After an 11-month journey, the jury will determine the winners of the Tartget Prize this Tuesday, May 13. The first phase of this initiative began last June, culminated in March with the close of submissions, and concluded two weeks later with the selection of finalists.
Hundreds of participants from across the globe presented their work before a panel of over 20 international jurors based on five continents, including Jason Anderson, Don Eddy, Leigh Benke, and Fletcher Sibthorp. Now, the in-person jury will evaluate the 100 shortlisted works chosen from nearly 500 finalists.
The top pieces of the 2025 edition have already earned the distinction of being exhibited at Madrid’s Ateneo, but their creators hope to take the stage at the June 5 gala to claim one of the 14 main awards—a decision that will be made in the coming days.
Global Reach: 85 countries represented
Tartget attracted submissions from 85 countries, spanning Mexico to Japan, with notable participation from South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.
Spain led in submissions, followed by France, Italy, the United States, Germany, and China—each represented by at least 50 works.
Other prolific contributors included Belgium, Canada, Romania, and Argentina.
Strong showings also came from artists based in Russia, Bulgaria, Brazil, and the Philippines.
Gold Tartget
The Anselma and Lafón halls of Madrid’s prestigious institution will host a distinguished gathering of artists, including some of the country’s most renowned figures. The exhibition, which will be displayed in the heart of UNESCO’s Landscape of Light from June 5 to 13, will bring together works by creators such as Shana Levenson, Agnieszka Kotarska, Andrii Kovalyk, Sheila Flaherty, Theo Felizzola, Konstantin Kachev, Michela Bogoni, and Kazuya Ushioda (winner of ModPortrait 2024).
One of the most notable aspects of this first edition is the prominent role played by Japanese artists. Of the 15 works submitted by Japanese creators, 4 have been ranked among the top 100. The talent of these artists from the Land of the Rising Sun will be well represented at Madrid’s Ateneo.
Thirty-eight Spanish artists dream of lifting the golden heart award in the spectacular Cátedra Mayor of the Ateneo. Among them are established names such as Haitz de Diego (Ondarroa, 1979), Marcos Rey (Madrid, 1975), Maribel Manzanares (Seville, 1968), José María Peña Gallardo (Córdoba, 1965), Jesús Inglés (Valencia, 1971), and David Sánchez (Barcelona, 1978).
The exhibition features predominantly veteran artists, many born in the 1970s. Particularly noteworthy is Isidro López Murias (Tetouan, 1939), who holds a cum laude doctorate in Fine Arts and whose career – begun in 1964 – will receive well-deserved recognition in Madrid.
In the “Young Painters” category, six artists under 25 will compete for the Gold, Silver and Bronze Target awards: the Anglo-German Cameron Copley-Heissig (London, 2003), Italian Rachele Moneta (Milan, 2001), Colombian Laura Espinosa (Bogotá, 2002), and Spaniards Nil Masip (Barcelona, 2006), Natalia Rodríguez (Zaragoza, 2004), and Eduardo Sánchez Ganza (Cartagena, 2012), a 12-year-old prodigy passionate about Japanese culture.
Their works will share space with those of Teresa Lapayese (Madrid, 1957), a copyist at the Prado Museum and specialist in still lifes, whose work forms part of the Spanish Royal Family’s private collection.
The jury will make its decision on May 12
Selecting the winning work will be no easy task. Will the honor go to an autumn still life, an urban landscape, or perhaps a figure drawn with colored pencils? The in-person jury—composed of Jacob Dhein, Aurelio Rodríguez, Fermín García Sevilla, Arantzazu Martínez, and María Lizaso—will convene on May 13 in Daimiel (Ciudad Real) to deliberate.
The choice of location is no coincidence, as this Castilian-La Mancha town is home to the competition’s three creators: the painter and entrepreneur Juan Francisco Gómez Cambronero, the journalist and writer Ismael Terriza, and the audiovisual creator José Luis Sánchez Montañés.
Moreover, the Ateneo exhibition will be replicated in Daimiel two weeks later. This showcase—distributed between the Casino de las Armonía and the Casa de Cultura—will rival what was seen in Spain’s capital. La Mancha, therefore, plays a significant role in Tartget Prize: in its organization, among participants, and particularly among its most notable ones.
In the Top 100, we find La Mancha artists like Javier Martín Aranda (Bolaños de Calatrava, 1983), one of Spain’s greatest specialists in speed painting with over 100 first prizes, and Feliciano Moya (Aldea del Rey, 1961), a master of landscapes. Also present are Pedro Miguel Pérez Villegas (Manzanares, 1960), Ana Gutiérrez (Córdoba, 1975) from Mora (Toledo), the brilliant watercolorist Juan Saturio (Malagón, 1987), and Ramón Aguirre (Daimiel, 1953)—though the latter’s fate will be decided 24 hours earlier, when the three members of the physical jury meet to choose the winner of the Fusion Tartget.
Awards Gala and Exhibition
Tartget Prize has burst onto the international scene by opening its doors to all painting styles and techniques. From oil paintings serving hyperrealistic works to the wood that Aguirre uses as his primary medium or the colorful stalactites by Lars Westby, created in his Annapolis studio (Maryland, USA).
Westby’s semi-sculptural, effects-driven screen is one of the 15 works competing for the Fusion Tartget – an award that will honor the most outstanding creation in the conceptual/collage and abstraction categories. Among these artists is German Jörg Pamer, based in Torrox (Málaga), a multifaceted creator accompanied by one of the competition’s most curious facts: his wife Danja Pamer also appears in the Ateneo’s Top 100 with her “Sunflowers”, a dazzling piece competing in the Still Life category. Who knows if both the Gold Tartget and Fusion Tartget might find their home in a Costa del Sol display case come June 6.
The Fusion award recipient will be determined by three appointed judges for Tartget Prize 2025: Emilio Gil, Mercedes Lara, and Gómez-Cambronero (the competition’s director and a figurative painter with brilliant forays into conceptual art, as demonstrated in his works exhibited at the European Parliament in Brussels in November 2023). These three will evaluate the candidates on Monday, May 12, during a closed-door session at Madrid’s Ateneo. Their assessments will crown the Fusion Tartget winner. The following day – as mentioned earlier – the jury will convene in Daimiel to determine the other major awards.
15 works competing for the Fusion Target award
On the afternoon of Thursday, June 5, all will be decided. The awards gala, to be held in the Cátedra Mayor of Madrid’s Ateneo, will mark the grand finale of Tartget Prize’s inaugural edition. The evening will be hosted by Lorena Berdún—the renowned Spanish psychologist, sexologist, TV presenter, and actress—who will serve as master of ceremonies before an audience of over 300 guests. Attendees will also enjoy a trumpet performance by Manuel Blanco, soloist of the Spanish National Orchestra and international concert artist, accompanied on piano by Ukrainian performer Margarita Kozlovska.
In the theater’s auditorium, most of the painters—who will have attended the exhibition’s opening that same afternoon—will gather. A hundred works will adorn walls just steps away from Madrid’s iconic museums: the Prado, Thyssen, and Reina Sofía. This kicks off nine days of artistic glory.
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