World’s Best Animal Realists / 2023 AMERICAN ART AWARDS: DAMPERS, POULIN DUROCHER, WALDECK, LEE, PRICE, PYLE, VAN HULSEN, WEHRMAN, SONG, HENNING, RASHID, VENCLOVA & BRUZGULIENE

Thom Bierdz
5 min readNov 3, 2023

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Artists from 72 countries competed in the 2023 AMERICAN ART AWARDS. Twenty of the most revered galleries in the USA were sent around 2,000 online images to score in drawing, painting, sculpture, digital and photography. The 300+ winning works, 1st to 6th Place (and ties) in all 50 categories, can be seen in this series of articles.

USA’s top galleries decided winners in every medium: oil, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, pastel, realism, impressionism, naïve, abstract, expressionism, human figure, animal, landscape, fantasy, surrealism, pop, portrait, self-portrait, political, erotic, cubism, floral, humor, spiritual, etc..

Art collectors can see all the winning images and corresponding contact info to the best contemporary artists in the world here: https://americanartawards.com/2023-winning-artists-american-art-awards/

Winners in this category are from ZIMBABWE, PANAMA, SOUTH AFRICA, MALAYSIA, USA, NORWAY, CZECH REPUBLIC & UK.

ARTISTS’ CONTACTS / SEE MORE OF THE ARTISTS’ WORKS:

1st Place RICKY DAMPERS ZIMBABWE http://www.facebook.com/rickydampers “The Agapelove” 94x64cm Charcoal pencil.

2nd Place — Tie CHANTAL POULIN DUROCHER PANAMA www.chantalpoulindurocher.com “Catherine The Goat” 20x30" Charcoal on Pastelmat.

2nd Place — Tie RON WALDECK SOUTH AFRICA www.ronwaldeck.com 110x80cm “918 The Challenge” Acrylic on canvas.

3rd Place — Tie RON WALDECK SOUTH AFRICA www.ronwaldeck.com 110x80cm “928 Cheek To Cheek” Acrylic on canvas.

3rd Place — Tie MONICA LEE MALAYSIA https://www.facebook.com/monicaleeart “View From Above” 45x30” Charcoal on paper.

3rd Place — Tie JILL PRICE SOUTH AFRICA kelvin@cwprice.co.za “Spooked” 59x40cm Color pencil on drafting film.

4th Place — Tie CHANTAL POULIN DUROCHER PANAMA www.chantalpoulindurocher.com ‘’Show Your Soft Side’’ 20'x30'’ Pastel on Pastelmat.

4th Place — Tie DAN PYLE USA http://danpyleartist.com/ “A Friendly Face” 15.75x23.5" Charcoal on illustration board.

4th Place — Tie ESTHER VAN HULSEN NORWAY https://www.esthervanhulsen.com/ “Patterns — Young Gyrfalcon” 36x28cm Watercolor and color pencil on board.

5th Place — Tie SUSAN WEHRMAN USA https://www.tippany.com “Basking” 32x18” Color pencil on pastelmat.

5th Place — Tie ETHAN SONG USA artistbonkoo@gmail.com “Red-Breasted Merganser” 9x12” Acrylic on Gesso board.

5th Place — Tie ANGELA LEE USA artistbonkoo@gmail.com “Swimming On The Lake” 9x12” Acrylic on Gesso board.

6th Place — Tie DEBBIE HENNING SOUTH AFRICA debbielinforth@gmail.com “Scarlet Enchantress” 42x59.4cm Color pencil on paper.

6th Place — Tie SAFIRAH RASHID MALAYSIA https://fotosafirah.blogspot.com/ “The Parrot” 20x15” Mixed media on oval canvas, glow in the dark paint.

6th Place — Tie MARIJA VENCLOVA CZECH REPUBLIC www.obrazy-pictures.com “Bee On A Flower“ 70x50cm Oil on canvas.

6th Place — Tie DEIMANTE BRUZGULIENE UK http://www.dbartist.co.uk “Brothers” 50x70cm. Pastel on paper.

In 2023, AMERICAN ART AWARDS had submissions from these 72 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Switzerland, Tobago, Trinidad, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, USA, Viet Nam, Wales, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

USA’s 20 Best Galleries & Museums who were asked to score online art in 2023 were:

American Art Awards 20 Best Galleries & Museums for 2023, in alphabetical order:

BEST IN ARIZONA: Exposures International Gallery Of Fine Art

BEST IN CALIFORNIA: Sparks Gallery

BEST IN COLORADO: Mirada Fine Art

BEST IN FLORIDA: MAC Art Galleries

BEST IN GEORGIA: Black Art In America™ (BAIA)

BEST IN INDIANA: Gallery Forty-Two

BEST IN KANSAS: CityArts

BEST IN KENTUCKY: KMAC Contemporary Art Museum

BEST IN LOUISIANA: Jonathan Ferrara Gallery

BEST IN MAINE: Clarke Gallery

BEST IN MONTANA: Cawdrey Gallery

BEST IN NEBRASKA: Kiechel Fine Art

BEST IN NEVADA: Elena Bulatova Fine Art

BEST IN NEW MEXICO: Thornwood Gallery

BEST IN NEW YORK: Gallery 23 NY

BEST IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Mary Martin Galleries Of Fine Art

BEST IN TEXAS: Ao5 Gallery

BEST IN SOUTH DAKOTA: South Dakota Art Museum

BEST IN VERMONT: Helmholz Fine Art

BEST IN WYOMING: Gallery Wild

American Art Awards https://www.americanartawards.com/ annually awards 20 museums and/or galleries, who agree to score art and award nearly 300+ deserving contemporary artists from 60+ countries: painters, photographers, sculptors and digital artists.

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Thom Bierdz
Thom Bierdz

Written by 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.