Leonardo da Vinci wrote, “That painting is the most praiseworthy which is most like the thing it represents.”
Nothing conveys the heart of humanity quite like representational art—that is, art that depicts real, recognizable objects or figures. American art collector Frederic Ross concurs: “Only representational art can express the vast array of beauty and tragedy both in the universe and here on earth, including the depth and breadth of the human condition and our shared humanity.”
Ross should know. He’s the leading authority on French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905), and he’s the founder of the world-renowned Art Renewal Center (ARC). The New Jersey-based ARC has supported and promoted realist artists and realist art education around the world for more than 25 years.
Last month, the nonprofit organization announced the winners of its 18th Salon Competition. Some 3,500 entries from 72 countries competed for the competition prize fund totaling more than $130,000 and the chance to win an array of special awards, including ARC Purchase Awards and magazine, gallery, and museum partnerships.
The Best of the Best
Artist Sean Layh’s painting “Antigone” won the $25,000 Best in Show Award, funded by The MacAvoy Foundation. According to its website, the foundation partners with organizations that support and promote artists producing “timeless subject matter with masterful techniques.”
For his winning work, Layh interpreted Sophocles’ timeless Athenian tragedy “Antigone,” written in 440 B.C., or thereabouts. Layh’s Antigone stands poised in the center of a dilapidated gallery, holding her baby son. Hanging on the wall behind her is the painting “Antigone and Polynices” by Nikephoros Lytras, depicting Antigone’s righteous wish to bury her dead brother against the ruler’s edict.
Layh explained some of the myriad deeper meanings of his painting in an artist statement. Lytras’ 19th-century painting connects the work to art history and classical history. “The empty frame and scattered pages evoke erasure, forgotten memory, and the fragility of cultural inheritance,” he wrote.
Based in Melbourne, Australia, Layh specializes in large-scale, multi-figure paintings depicting scenes from Western theater and literature classics. In addition to winning Best in Show, “Antigone” also won the Sheng Xinyu Art Award, the Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine Award and a special Fashion Week San Diego (FWSD) Award. The latter prize entails FWSD designers creating a couture piece and “look” inspired by the painting.
Another of Layh’s paintings also won big. Based on the ancient Greek myth of Icarus, “Icarus Fallen” won the First Place Figurative Award, Best Marine Themed Work, and Third Place Imaginative Realism Award.
Another Multi-Award Winner
Artist Marcos Rey from Peru also won multiple ARC awards. Rey won the $3,000 William Bouguereau Award with his large, multi-figure painting “Incendios.” It’s an idealized scene of the women who often gathered at his grandmother’s home, where he felt safe and protected as a child. Dressed in black, the grandmother leads two generations of her family through the smouldering wildfires of a Galician mountain in northwestern Spain. “Stoic as caryatids, they try to overcome adversity by remaining united,” he wrote in his artist statement.
In addition, Rey won a First Place Imaginative Realism Award and a Sheng Xinyu Art Award with “Angel.” He also won a First Place Drawing Award, Second Place Portraiture Award, and an ARC Purchase Award for his captivating drawing of a female amputee, titled “La Manca.”
Rey’s and Layh’s paintings will be displayed alongside about 100 works in the 17th and 18th International ARC Salon Competition Exhibition from July 17 through July 27, 2026, at Sotheby’s New York on Madison Avenue.
Other Winners
To find out more and see all award winners, visit ArtRenewal.org
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