World’s Best Manipulated Landscape Photos Named By America’s 25 Best Galleries: BARULINS, BANNON, PETERSON, JOHNSON, GLANDARIUS, LAPTEVA, ZENG & ORLOVIC / 2021 AMERICAN ART AWARDS

Thom Bierdz
6 min readOct 4, 2021

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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 Best Galleries & Museums scored almost 2,000 works in 50 categories from 64 countries.

Winners in Category 46 are from LATVIA, USA, CANADA, GERMANY, RUSSIA & CHINA.

BIO OF 1ST PLACE WINNER: Igors Barulins. Born in 1959 in Latvia, he lives and works in its capital city — Riga. He began to practice photography at the age of ten and later received a five-year academic education.

Igors Barulins has collected his experience for decades as an independent artist, as well as professional photographer in publishing and advertising businesses.

Following his vision in traditional photography, he has experimented with different technical and technological approach of creating photos as a piece of art. As the result — several of exhibitions in Riga, Moscow, and London. His works are proudly presented by some private collectors worldwide.

An indefatigable passion for further diversity, as well as the digitalization of photography, led Igor to use the possibilities of computer processing. New chapter with almost endless possibilities of artistic creativity has started.

Huge creative variety of works is demonstrating the wide range of Igor’s taste and artist maturity. An acknowledgment of his artistic level is reflected in multiple winning of American Art Awards in different categories in 2018–2021. www.barulins.art

ARTIST CONTACTS FOR ART COLLECTORS:

Category 46. MANIPULATED PHOTOGRAPHY — LANDSCAPE OR STILL LIFE

1st Place IGORS BARULINS LATVIA www.barulins.art “Flashback” 83x110cm Manipulated photo.

2nd Place KAREN BANNON USA Karenbannon266@gmail.com
“The Pollinator” 3x2” Manipulated photo.

3rd Place-Tie DAVID A PETERSON USA montanagayman@comcast.net
“Into Tomorrow (worked from Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco)” Photo.

3rd Place-Tie STEVE JOHNSON CANADA steveads@yahoo.ca
“Backyard Metamorphosis” 2500x1875px Manipulated Photo.

4th Place-Tie KAREN BANNON USA karenbannon266@gmail.com
“Raw Power In True Form” 1x1' Photo.

4th Place-Tie GARRULUS GLANDARIUS GERMANY www.garrulus-glandarius.com “Fish For Dinner” 50x70cm Combination of digital painting and photography, giclée print on archival paper.

4th Place-Tie GARRULUS GLANDARIUS GERMANY www.garrulus-glandarius.com “Underwater Fair” 50x70 cm Combination of digital painting and photography, giclée print on archival paper.

5th Place-Tie YULYA LAPTEVA RUSSIA https://www.instagram.com/yulyalapteva19.02/ “In The Misty Morning Haze” 8256x5504px Photography, Nikon z7 camera, Nikon 7–200 f 2.8 vr ii lens.

5th Place-Tie IGORS BARULINS LATVIA www.barulins.art “Inspired By Beauty” 83x110cm Manipulated photo.

5th Place-Tie JUNHAO ZENG CHINA https://www.instagram.com/_andy__zeng_/ “Necklace of Romance” 41x27cm Photography.

6th Place-Tie MARIJA ORLOVIC GERMANY www.mo-pictures.com
“Transcendentia 01” 3500x4600px

6th Place-Tie KAREN BANNON USA karenbannon266@gmail.com
“Your Guidance” 1x1' Photo. Manip still

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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
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.