World’s Best Abstract Artists Named By America’s 25 Best Galleries: ZI, ULEVICIENE, PESIC GROZDANOV, WARD, SAMKANASHWILI, SHELTON, BRUZGULIENE, KOTOS, KAREBINA, NARIUNAS, DOKMAI, SOMMER & KROL/ 2021 AMERICAN ART AWARDS

Thom Bierdz
7 min readSep 29, 2021

Each May the American Art Awards organization selects the 25 Best Galleries and Museums in America, then in autumn these revered art institutions vote on online art to decide the world’s best contemporary artists.

America’s 25 Best Galleries scored almost 2,000 works in 50 categories from 64 countries.

Winners in this category are from CHINA, LITHUANIA, MACEDONIA, USA, GEORGIA, UK, RUSSIA, THAILAND & POLAND.

BIO OF 1ST PLACE WINNER: Ramune Uleviciene is an experienced artist based in Lithuania whose paintings have been exhibited nationally since 1986, as well as in the United States, the Netherlands, and Norway. She describes her artistic practice as an ongoing effort to understand both light and darkness, recognizing that beauty and positivity are essential in times of misfortune and despair. She often depicts flowers in her compositions, for her, they are symbolic for life itself. «What I want to express in my paintings is a simple fact that light and beauty always win! » — the artist says.

Ramune Uleviciene has more than 30 years of creative experience, the last 10 years being a full-time artist.

She focuses on oil and acrylic paintings. Her unique painting style is recognizable in the art world. The work is done with alcohol ink or mixed media — successful experiments with new techniques in recent years. It’s like a breath of fresh air in Ramune’s creative world!

BIO OF 1ST PLACE WINNER: Painting Artist — Yanzi

Yan Zi, female, the Global Ambassador for Culture Promotion of Crested Ibis, the first ever painting artist specialized in oil painting for crested Ibis, Chinese oil painter of Russian origin, member of China Sketch Oil Painting Club, member of Russian Animal Oil Painting Association, member of American Portrait Association, member of Shaanxi Artists Association, guest professor of Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology.

Yanzi graduated from Communication University of China (the former Beijing Broadcasting Institute) and studied oil painting at The Repin Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Li Ning, Chairman of the Chinese Athletes Education Fund, praised her as an “Angel Painter” and awarded her the title of “Ambassador of Love.”

Yanzi has held 9 individual oil painting exhibitions and participated in a number of national and international events as well. Many of her works were awarded with national and international prizes, and also collected by a host of art museums of national importance or individuals.

Her works, As Happy As Flowers won the 1st prize in Small-Size Oil Painting Session of Canadian International Oil Painting Double Group Exhibition in 2019; Harbor won the 7th prize in the 10th International Seascape Painting Competition in the United States; Extreme won the 8th prize in the Painting Category of the 2020 Women’s Art Competition with the Online Art Gallery of the International Art Union.

Giant Pandas in Qinling Mountains won the Golden Turtle Prize of 2020 Russia International Animal Painting Competition; In 2020, Zhou Ying-The Businesswoman of Shaanxi- won the 4th prize in the American International Portrait Competition. In 2021, Peony won the 1st prize in the American International Flower Painting Competition; In the American (International) Art Oil Painting Exhibition of 2021, her works also won a host of awards successively. i.e. Magnificent Changes won the 1st prize in the Abstract Category; oil painting Zhou Ying-The Businesswoman of Shaanxi won the 1st prize in the East Asia Category; oil painting The Garden Full of Happiness won the 4th prize in the Still Life Category, oil painting Peach Blossom won the 6th prize in the Flowers Category.

晏子画家

晏子,女,“全球朱鹮文化宣传推广大使”、“朱鹮油画第一人”,俄裔中国油画家,中国写生油画俱乐部会员,俄罗斯动物油画协会会员,美国肖像协会会员,陕西省美术家协会会员,西北工业大学,陕西科技大学客座教授。毕业中国传媒大学(原北京广播学院),曾在俄罗斯圣彼得堡列宾美术学院学习油画。被中国运动员教育基金主席李宁称赞为“天使画家”,并授予“爱心大使”称号。

她举办过9次个人油画专展,作品多次参加国内外大展,诸多作品在内外获奖并被多个国家级美木馆和个人收藏。2019《幸福如花》获加拿大国际油画双联展小型类油画类作品展一等奖;2019年《港湾》获美国第十届国际海景绘画大赛第七名、《极致》获国际艺术联盟线上艺术馆2020 年女子艺术大赛绘画类第八名;《秦岭大熊猫》获2020 年俄罗斯国际动物绘画大赛金龟奖;2020年《秦商周莹》美国国际肖像大赛第四名。2021年《牡丹花》获美国国际花卉绘画大赛第一名。 2021年美国(国际)艺术油画作品《沧海桑田》获得抽象类别一等奖,油画作品《秦商周莹》获东方亚洲类别第一名,油画作品《幸福满园》获静物类第四名,油画作品《桃花盛开》获花卉类第6名。

ARTIST CONTACTS FOR ART COLLECTORS:

Category 6. ABSTRACT

1st Place-Tie YAN ZI CHINA 634736232@qq.com
“Vicissitudes Of Life №1” 120x120cm Oil on linen.

1st Place-Tie RAMUNE ULEVICIENE LITHUANIA www.facebook.com/Ramune-Uleviciene-Paintings-692703667445715
“DNA Of The Universe” 120x60 Alcohol ink on canvas.

2nd Place-Tie DIVNA PESIC GROZDANOV MACEDONIA www.divnapesic.com “Taurus Superpower” 60x60cm Oil on canvas.

2nd Place-Tie KATHLEEN WARD USA www.kathleenward.com “The River III” 35x41.5” Acrylic & mixed media on canvas.

3rd Place DIVNA PESIC GROZDANOV MACEDONIA www.divnapesic.com 40x30" “The Story of One Forbidden Love” Oil on canvas.

4th Place-Tie NATA SAMKANASHWILI GEORGIA “Women, Isolation” natalisamkanashvili@gmail.com 60x40" Watercolor, ink, charcoal, acrylic.

4th Place-Tie WENDY SHELTON USA wendyshelton5@gmail.com
“Struggle Of Humanity” 10x10" Acrylic on stretched canvas.

4th Place-Tie DEIMANTE BRUZGULIENE UK http://www.dbartist.co.uk “Waves” 30x20" Fluid acrylic on canvas.

5th Place-Tie JOHN KOTOS USA https://www.jtkstudio.com/ 30x40” “Dusk” Acrylic, hardened brushes, scraper, canvas.

5th Place-Tie LESYA KAREBINA RUSSIA lesia-karebina@mail.ru
“3” 70х100cm Acrylic on canvas.

5th Place-Tie VALDAS NARIUNAS LITHUANIA https://valdoart.weebly.com “Europe” 20x34" Ink on board.

5th Place-Tie KATHLEEN WARD USA www.kathleenward.com “Dawn” 34x44” Acrylic & mixed media on canvas.

6th Place-Tie NAPHAT DOKMAI THAILAND fineartstudio8@gmail.com 80x110cm “Ascension” Oil, acrylic, red bronze, metallic color pen on canvas.

6th Place-Tie SUSAN SOMMER USA www.susansommer.com “Autumn Patterning” 60x48" Oil on linen.

6th Place-Tie BARTŁOMIEJ KROL POLAND Godgameperspective@gmail.com “Waves Of infinite Possibilities, 2” 8.3x11.7” Pen and marker on paper.

Click below to see the relaxing hour-long movie revealing 2021’s hundreds of winning artworks:

Artworks from 59 countries won among the 50 categories: paintings, drawings, photography, digital and sculpture. (Americans won more because Americans entered more since the competition is better known here.)

Number of winners per country: Argentina 1, Australia 12, Belarus 2, Belgium 2, Brazil 3, Bulgaria 2, Canada 30, China 85, Croatia 2, Cyprus 1, Denmark 2, England 2, Finland 1, France 7, Georgia 3, Germany 18, Ghana 1, Greece 3, Hungary 2, Japan 1, India 10, Iran 1, Ireland 1, Israel 1, Italy 14, Kazakhstan 1, Kuwait 2, Latvia 6, Lithuania 27, Macedonia 5, Malaysia 2, Mexico 2, Moldova 1, Morocco 1, Netherlands 3, New Zealand 1, Nigeria 8, Norway 1, Oman 1, Pakistan 1, Philippines 5, Poland 8, Republic Of Korea 12, Romania 2, Russia 45, Serbia 1, South Africa 8, Spain 11, Sweden 3, Taiwan 7, Thailand 1, Turkey 3, Uganda 1, UK 10, Ukraine 5, USA 264, Uzbekistan 1, Zambia 1, Zimbabwe 2.

ART COLLECTORS: all winning images and corresponding contact info of all the artists will soon be uploaded to this page:

This year’s 25 Best Galleries & Museums asked to vote on art were:

BEST IN ARIZONA: Exposures International Gallery of Fine Art

BEST IN CALIFORNIA: Revolver Gallery

BEST IN COLORADO: Mirada Fine Art

BEST IN FLORIDA: Art Fusion Galleries

BEST IN HAWAII: Sunshine Arts

BEST IN ILLINOIS: Trickster Cultural Center

BEST IN IOWA: Moberg Gallery

BEST IN KANSAS: Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery

BEST IN KENTUCKY: E&S Gallery

BEST IN LOUISIANA: Jonathan Ferrara Gallery

BEST IN MASSACHUSETTS: Boston Sculptors Gallery

BEST IN MISSOURI: Hilliard Gallery

BEST IN MONTANA: Dana Gallery

BEST IN NEBRASKA: Kiechel Fine Art

BEST IN NEVADA: Metropolitan Gallery Las Vegas Art Museum

BEST IN NEW JERSEY: Evalyn Dunn Gallery

BEST IN NEW YORK: LIK SOHO

BEST IN NEW MEXICO: GF Contemporary

BEST IN NORTH CAROLINA: The Arts Council of Fayetteville| Cumberland County

BEST IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Mary Martin Galleries Of Fine Art

BEST IN SOUTH DAKOTA: South Dakota Art Museum

BEST IN TENNESSEE: Stanford Fine Art

BEST IN TEXAS: Ao5

BEST IN WASHINGTON: Maryhill Museum of Art

BEST IN WEST VIRGINIA: Parkersburg Art Center

ENTER OR GET AN OFFICIAL GALLERY RATING:

www.AmericanArtAwards.com

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Thom Bierdz

One of Medium’s TOP ART CONTRIBUTORS, award-winning author, actor, film-maker, painter. 12 books: 6 on art. President of WAA & AAA & ACCA.