A year after being turned down by the same competition, Ghanaian visual artist Nana Kwaku Boateng has made the shortlist of the 2026 British Art Prize.
According to a report by Graphic Showbiz, his graphite drawing Tailor Made is one of 75 works selected for the shortlist of the prize, which is organised by the British magazine Artists & Illustrators.
Boateng told the Daily Graphic that his entry was rejected in 2025, but that he decided to try again with a new piece. "I didn't let the rejection prevent me from submitting something new," he said.
He described the shortlisting as a reward for that persistence.
Tailor Made is a detailed graphite portrait. According to Graphic Showbiz, Boateng described the work as an experiment in how the brain sees a drawing and immediately takes it for a photograph. He said he added a sense of movement to the portrait, so that viewers might imagine the subject blinking or smiling, and described the piece as a reflection on "the power of the mind".
All the shortlisted works will be shown at the OXO Gallery on London's South Bank from October 21 to 25, 2026. The winners will be announced at a private view on October 22, attended by artists, collectors and invited guests.
According to Graphic Showbiz, the overall winner will receive £2,000, a solo exhibition at Panter & Hall's Cecil Court Gallery in London, art materials and a six-page feature in the magazine. Listings for the competition say prizes are worth more than £10,000 in total.
Boateng has worked as a professional artist since 2017 and is a graduate of Takoradi Technical University. He is known for hyper-realistic portraits in graphite and charcoal that explore identity, vulnerability and lived experience.
His work has already won international attention. In 2024 he won the People's Choice Award at the Derwent Art Prize in London. In May 2025, the British High Commissioner in Ghana hosted an exhibition of his work at the High Commissioner's residence in Accra to mark World Art Day, according to the report.
Takoradi Technical University, where Boateng studied, was formerly Takoradi Polytechnic and became a technical university in 2016. It is one of several institutions in Ghana that train artists and designers, alongside the College of Art at KNUST in Kumasi. Many of Ghana's emerging artists come through these programmes before building careers through exhibitions, commissions and online audiences.
Artists & Illustrators is a long-running British magazine for practising artists, and its annual prize attracts entries from both professionals and amateurs. A place on the shortlist puts Boateng's work in front of collectors, gallery owners and critics in one of the world's biggest art markets.
Ghanaian artists have become increasingly visible on the international art scene over the past decade. Painters, sculptors and photographers from the country have shown at major galleries, biennales and art fairs abroad, while Accra has developed a lively gallery scene of its own.
Hyper-realistic drawing, in particular, has a strong following among young Ghanaian artists, many of whom built their audiences on social media by sharing time-lapse videos of portraits that look like photographs. Boateng's shortlisting shows how that style is being recognised in formal competitions as well.
Art lovers in London will be able to see Tailor Made in person at the OXO Gallery exhibition. Ghanaian fans will be watching for the October 22 announcement to see whether Boateng goes one step further and takes a top prize.
Whatever the outcome, the shortlisting is a strong turnaround from last year's rejection, and a reminder to young artists that a "no" does not have to be the end of the road.
