[1] The new competition coincided with a move by the rival Turner Prize away from painting and sculpture and, in some eyes, becoming "trivial and dull".
"[2] In 2009, almost half of the 80 final exhibits at the Mall Galleries were portrait paintings in a wide variety of styles.
Selectors have included artists, critics and curators Peter Randall-Page, Ed Vaizey, Michael Sandle, Jock McFadyen, Daphne Todd, Richard Cork and Desmond Shawe-Taylor.
Following the 2016 exhibition at Mall Galleries, London, selected works from the Prize toured to Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy.
Winner - Ana Schmidt, Dead End[5] Visitors' Choice - Emily Allchurch, Babel Britain Winner - Lewis Hazelwood-Horner, Salt in Tea[6] Visitors' Choice - Lewis Hazelwood-Horner, Salt in Tea Winner - Tina Jenkins, Bed Head[7] Visitors' Choice - Ben Johnson, Room of the Revolutionary Joint winner - Clare McCormack, Dead Labour/Dead Labourer [3] Joint winner - Lisa Wright, The Guilty's Gaze on the Innocent [3] Visitors' Choice - Conrad Engelhardt, Aung San Suu Kyi [8] Winner - Ben Greener, My Feet [9] Visitors' Choice - Robert Truscott, Defeat [9] Winner - Henrietta Simson, Bad Government [10] Visitors' Choice - Nicholas McLeod, Drained [10] Winner - Patricia Cain, Building the Riverside Museum [11] Visitors' Choice - Fionnuala Boyd and Les Evans, Clee Hill 2009 [11] Winner - Sheila Wallis[4] Emerging Artist Prize - Aishan Yu [12] Winner - Nina Murdoch, Untitled [13] Selectors' Choice - Tim Shaw, Tank on Fire [13] 2018 Pipa Stockdale, Jennifer McRae, Helen Pheby, Lewis McNaught 2016 Emma Crichton-Miller, David Dawson, Dr Arturo Galansino, Dr Tim Knox 2014 John Martin, Kevin Francis Gray, Nancy Durrant, Whitney Hintz 2013 Tim Shaw, Barnaby Wright, Paul Benney, Laura Gascoigne 2012 Nicholas Usherwood, Peter Randall-Page, Christopher Riopelle 2011 Julie Lomax, Lisa Milroy, Godfrey Worsdale 2010 Dr Xavier Bray, David Rayson, Michael Sandle RA 2009 Jock McFadyen, Cathy Lomax, Michael Leonard, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Daphne Todd OBE, Nine Murdoch 2008 Richard Cork, Angela Flowers, Hew Locke, William Packer, Brian Sewell