Carl Randall, former Daiwa Scholar, has been awarded the prestigious BP Travel Award 2012 at the National Portrait Gallery in London

Dr Carl Randall has been awarded this year’s prestigious BP Travel Award at The National Portrait Gallery in London. All 55 exhibitors were eligible to apply for this award.

The aim of the Award is to provide the opportunity for the winning artist to experience working in a different environment, in Britain or abroad, on a project related to portraiture which will then be shown as part of the BP Portrait Award 2013 exhibition and tour in 2012-13.

Carl will use the Award to travel to Japan to create paintings based on The ‘Tokaido Road’ (or ‘Great Coastal Route’). Connecting Tokyo and Kyoto, the road was for centuries the most important road in Japan – scenes along the route being famously depicted in the prints of the Japanese woodblock artist Ando Hiroshige (1797 – 1858).

Just as Hiroshige made prints documenting Japan 200 years ago, Carl will be making images that document Japan today.

Carl Randall will be creating modern equivalents of these prints, depicting scenes along the road as it exists today, forming a small solo exhibition to be held at The National Portrait Gallery in London, June – September 2013 (as part of next year’s BP Portrait Award).

Carl’s painting has been used to advertise this year’s exhibition on the National Portrait Gallery’s website.

Carl has been based in Tokyo as an artist since 2003, having been awarded a Daiwa Scholarship, followed by a Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship. This extended period has been used to develop his interest in cities and portraiture, responding to the people and places of Tokyo. During this time he has completed a Master’s Degree and Doctorate in Oil Painting at Japan’s prestigious Tokyo University of the Arts, was selected to be artist in residence in Hiroshima City (to meet and make portraits of survivors of the Atomic Bomb), and was chosen to represent Japan as artist in residence at the 2007 Formula 1 Races. He has also exhibited widely in Japan, including Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Arts, and Tokyo Art Award 2009.

The artist’s new Japan paintings and drawings will be exhibited in London in the near future, including a solo exhibition at Japan House (January – March 2014).