The Women in Art Prize, the UK’s only non-profit annual award dedicated to women artists, has officially announced its powerful lineup of 2025 finalists. Among the standout names are Hollywood icon Sharon Stone and Bianca Raffaella, a rising star in the art world and a visually impaired painter championed by Tracey Emin at her artist residency in Margate. Also featured is acclaimed portrait photographer Jenny Lewis, who turns the camera on herself for the first time to explore themes of chronic invisible illness and menopause.
Now in its 8th year, the Women in Art Prize will reveal its winners at a special Awards Ceremony at the British Library’s Pigott Theatre on 17th September. A public exhibition of the finalists’ work will run at York Street Gallery, London, from 16th to 24th September 2025.
Enduringly iconic film star Sharon Stone has been shortlisted for an original painting. The Golden Globe, Emmy, Academy Award-winning actor, has been creatively reinventing herself for almost 50 years.
I learned to paint as a kid from my Aunt Vonne who had two masters degrees: English & Fine Arts. Paintings are stories – especially abstract ones. I’ve entered my painting because I love women artists and my dream is to be recognised among them.” Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone is an internationally acclaimed actor, producer, and humanitarian who has, in recent years, established herself as a painter. Recent exhibitions include ‘Shedding’, Allouche Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023, ‘Totem’, Galerie Deschler, Berline, 2024 and ‘My Eternal Failure’, Gallery 181, San Fransisco, 2025. Alongside her artistic practice, Stone has been widely recognised for her human rights advocacy, receiving honours such as the Harvard Humanitarian Award, the Nobel Peace Summit Award, and France’s Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
There are people who can see everything – they can see out into space with 20/20 vision. But they can’t make beautiful soulful art. Raffaella paints how she sees. I immediately fell in love with her painting” Tracey Emin on Women in Art Prize 2025 finalist Bianca Raffaella
Bianca Raffaella is a visually impaired artist painting from memory to create what The Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones hails “ethereally beautiful work.” Her paintings of stems and flowers, made by ‘seeing’ them through touch, and often painted with her fingertips and thumbs, give a unique perception of the world. Raffaella is a passionate advocate for accessibility in the arts. In 2016, Rafaella was the first registered visually impaired student to graduate from Kingston University. She went on to be selected by Dame Tracey Emin for the 25th edition of Flowers Gallery’s Artist of the Day and a 2023/24 Tracey Emin Artist Residency.
As a young woman with very little sight I was made to believe that working in the visual arts was unrealistic. But all I ever wanted was to show beauty as I saw it.” Bianca Raffaella
For the first time, Jenny Lewis is turning the camera on herself in an intimate untangling of her experience living with a chronic invisible illness while simultaneously navigating the unknown territory of menopause. Holding space for this transition into midlife is political – after 15 years of creating internationally exhibited portraits found in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery and Wellcome Collection.
Flying in from New York to present the 2025 Woman In Art Prize is historian and prize- winning author Dr Amanda Foreman. Amanda is the chair of the Feminist Institute and is a trustee of the Whiting Foundation. She is on the board of Americans For Oxford, International Friends of the London Library, and is on the executive board for the Society of American Historians. In 2016, Foreman served as chair of The Man Booker Prize and received the St. George’s Society of New York’s Anglo-American Cultural Award, which recognises individuals who have made significant contributions to the US-UK cultural world. That same year, her BBC documentary series, ‘The Ascent of Woman’, was released. In 2019, she was invited to curate a special exhibition for Buckingham Palace as part of its summer opening.
Finalists will compete for 22 awards, with prizes ranging from exhibition opportunities and mentoring to magazine features and artist residencies. For the first time, the awards will also include The Paula Rego Painting Prize. Created in partnership with The Paula Rego Estate, its debut celebrates excellence in painting and to pay tribute to the pioneering artist’s enduring influence on women in the arts.
The Women in Art Prize, now in its 8th year, is open to all emerging women artists that are painters, photographers, sculptors, illustrators & printmakers living and working in the UK, with an awarded prize for one overseas artist.
Among those partnered with The 2025 Women in Art Prize are Cass Art, Mall Galleries and FLUX Exhibition: placing the finalists at the centre of the art world through support in the creation, exhibiting and promotion of female artists.
The 8th Women in Art Prize Awards Ceremony is at the British Library, Pigott Theatre on the 17 September. The Women in Art Prize exhibition is at York Street Gallery, London from 16 – 24 September 2025.
For more information visit: www.womeninartprize.com
