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The BMW Painting Prize: four decades promoting Spanish art
For nearly four decades, the BMW Painting Prize has established itself as one of Spain's most prestigious art competitions. Sponsored by BMW Ibérica, this award was created in 1986 with the aim of fostering creativity, innovation, and talent in the field of contemporary visual arts. Throughout its history, it has brought together thousands of artists from different generations, styles, and sensibilities, becoming a reflection of the country's artistic trends.
In its most recent edition—the 40th—the competition broke a participation record with 1,904 entries, of which 1,689 were in the Painting category and 215 in Digital Art. The latter, added in recent years, demonstrates the prize's commitment to adapting to new visual languages and the dialogue between art and technology.
Navarrese artist Amaya Suberviola has won the 40th BMW Painting Prize for her work “ST25061 (To pick up an eyelash with the fingers)”. The awards ceremony, presided over by Her Majesty Queen Sofía, took place at the Teatro Real in Madrid. In the Digital Art category, Madrid-based Chino Moya was recognized for his creation “Metapope”.
The winning work, created with oil and marker on canvas, reflects on the construction and deconstruction of the image. In it, Amaya Suberviola reproduces gestures typical of the digital environment—copying, pasting, rotating, moving—to reorganize elements without adding anything external, as if the painting itself were behaving like an editable file. The process begins with a recognizable scene which, after a succession of cumulative successes and failures, is transformed into a new composition, situated between the accidental and the deliberate.
The BMW Painting Prize awards a cash prize of €25,000 to the winning work in the main category, while the Digital Art prize is worth €6,000. In addition, the finalists' work is exhibited in a group show, providing a valuable platform for visibility for both emerging and established artists.
