LONDON.- The Saatchi Gallery and Saatchi Online, in association with Winsor & Newton, announced the winner of the Painted Faces Showdown, Miguel Laino, and the runner-up, Chris Stevens, who will exhibit their works alongside the work of 8 other finalists at the Griffin Gallery in London from 5 – 20 December.

Showdown is a competition hosted by Saatchi Online for artists all over the world to showcase their work and be given the chance for it to be judged by internationally acclaimed artists and curators. It is also a great opportunity for collectors to discover emerging artists from around the world. Previous judges include Barnaby Furnas, Ged Quinn, Wangechi Mutu, Peter Coffin, Dexter Dalwood and Matthias Weischer.

For the Painted Faces Showdown, focusing on contemporary portraiture, partnered with Winsor & Newton, who have been making the finest art materials since the company was founded in 1832. The winner and runner-up of Painted Faces will receive art materials to the value of £1000 and £500 GBP respectively. For the first time, the Showdown exhibition, featuring works by the 10 finalists, will take place at Winsor & Newton’s gallery, the Griffin Gallery, in London from 5 - 20 December.

A longlist of 300 artists was chosen by the Saatchi Online community of artists and by curators from Saatchi Online. The 30 semi-finalists were selected by Rebecca Wilson, Chief Curator, Saatchi Online and Director, Saatchi Gallery, and Rebecca Pelly-Fry, Director, Griffin Gallery. The 10 finalists, including the winner and runner up, were chosen by the artist Chantal Joffe.

The 10 finalists are Miguel Laino (UK), Chris Stevens (UK), Casper Verborg (Netherlands), Stephane Villafane (France), Kristina Alisauskaite (Lithuania), Sergey Dyomin (Latvia), Fiona Maclean (Australia), Minas Halaj (US), Maurice Sapiro (US), Daniel Gonzalez Coves (Germany).