Gibraltar artist’s self portrait shortlisted again in prestigious Spanish competition

Chris Anne Alcantara has been selected for a second consecutive year in a prestigious Spanish art competition, Almenara Art Prize, this time with what she describes as one of the most personal works of her career, a self portrait titled “Between Versions of Myself - Beyond the Green Stripe.”

The online competition, which last year attracted close to 10,000 entries and this year received between 6,000 and 7,000 submissions, has once again shortlisted her work for its initial digital exhibition phase. From thousands of applicants, around 650–700 are selected online before a much smaller group, just 72 finalists last year, is chosen to exhibit their pieces in Cordoba.

“For me, just being selected is already a win,” she said. “You scroll through all the works, and suddenly your piece appears. It’s incredible to see it there.”

Known primarily for her portraiture, she explained that this year’s entry marks a deliberate shift away from the more hyper realistic approach she is known for.

“I’ve always done portraiture,” she said, “but when I was younger I was more experimental with colour and mark making. I think I’m going back to that and really exploring and experimenting with colour again.”

While she also paints cityscapes and Upper Town scenes, she “always comes back” to portraits. This time, however, she chose to create something more fragmented and expressive, both visually and emotionally.

“It’s not the kind of realistic piece people might expect from me,” she said.

“Aesthetically, I don’t think people would necessarily like it as much in terms of how I look. But as an artist, I see it as a successful piece.”

The work is based on a stark photograph of herself, taken on an ordinary day during a particularly difficult period in her life.

“There was no make up, nothing,” she recalled. “If anyone knows me, I like to wear my make up. In the original photo I looked tired, worn, mentally worn down.”

The image sat unused for some time until recent personal changes brought it back into focus. She said the photograph “spoke” to her in a new way, prompting her to rework it in paint.

“Here, I really wanted to push the colour. Maybe it’s me trying to find myself, the happier self within me, through those colder and warmer shifts of colour and the fragmented parts.”

The process, she admitted, was deeply emotional but also unusually fluid.

“I normally take a very long time on my pieces, but this one came together relatively quickly,” she said. “I didn’t procrastinate as much as I usually do. It has definitely been a therapeutic piece.”

The title, Beyond the Green Stripe, is a direct nod to Henri Matisse’s famous portrait “The Green Stripe”, in which a vertical band of colour divides the subject’s face. In her own painting, she unintentionally echoed Matisse’s work.

“As I was painting it, I realised it was reminding me of that piece, almost subconsciously,” she said. “There was no intention to replicate it, which is nice, but of course we’re always influenced by other artists.”

Alongside Matisse and Post Impressionists like Paul Gauguin, she cited contemporary painters such as Zoey Frank and Andrew Salgado for their use of bright, expressive colour and fragmented imagery. She also referred to the impact of Jenny Saville’s raw self portraits, which have stayed with her since seeing them in an exhibition.

“These influences are rarely the result of active research just before starting a piece,” she said.

“They build up over years, through exhibitions, social media, and constantly following other artists. It’s all there subconsciously when I begin.”

She also works closely with fellow painter and husband, Karl Ullger, who is also shortlisted for the Almenara Art Prize and she noted that they too influence each other while still having different reactions to art especially when they visit art galleries.

She regularly produces self portraits, but this piece stands apart for her.

“I don’t know if it’s my favourite,” she said, “but it’s the one that speaks to me the most.”

If the work passes the next round of judging, it will be shipped to Cordoba to be shown alongside the shortlisted finalists, something she described as “the real dream”, even as she insists that simply reaching this stage already feels like a significant achievement.