The announcement was made on the inaugural day of the biennial, which will run until December 31, with 191 works by 95 illustrators competing for the BIG 2025 National Prize, on display at the Vila Flor Cultural Center (CCVF) in Guimarães, in the Braga district.
In a statement, the organization highlighted that the Grand Prize BIG 2025, valued at 5,000 euros, was awarded to António Jorge Gonçalves, while the BIG Revelation Prize, worth 1000 euros, went to António José Lopes.
André Carrilho, Catarina Sobral, Isabel Baraona, João Vaz de Carvalho, and Maria Remédio received the BIG Acquisition Prize, each receiving 500 euros.
“Seven prizes, totaling 8,500 euros, comprise the BIG 2025 National Prize, targeting artists who professionally engage in press illustration, book illustrations, and cultural posters,” states the organization.
The jury, including Emílio Remelhe, Madalena Matoso (winner of 2023), and Rudolfo da Silva, emphasized “the graphic quality of the work” presented by António Jorge Gonçalves, highlighting “the consistency of his work, particularly in thematic and formal deconstruction, narrative content diversity, resource economy, and compositional synthesis.”
The jury also noted “the impact of his production, rhetorical resources, and resulting discursive coherence.”
The BIG Revelation Prize was awarded to António José Lopes “for the expressive power, the dialogue between different technical, rhetorical resources and narrative qualities.” According to the jury, the “work sparked curiosity and left expectations for future endeavors.”
The five BIG Acquisition Prizes “aim to continue the municipal collection of contemporary Portuguese illustration, ensuring diversity and representation, broadening both repertoire and languages. Given the high quality of the works presented, the jury chose authors not yet included in the said collection,” explains the organization.
The BIG 2025 Career Prize, worth 10,000 euros and already announced, was awarded to Cristina Sampaio.
“The diversity of profiles and the selected works in the 5th edition of the Guimarães Biennial reinforce the event’s mission to promote and encourage critical dialogue among illustrators from various generations and artistic expressions. Exhibited works are from different visual universes and languages, sharing a common dimension – creative relevance and pertinence, fostering dialogue and questioning with diverse audiences and contexts,” the organization’s statement reads.
The BIG – Illustration Biennial of Guimarães is an initiative of the Guimarães City Council, organized by the cultural production cooperative MOTOR, based in Guimarães, aiming to dignify the role of illustrators in cultural development, in publishing, books, magazines, newspapers, posters, traditional mass communication media, and new technologies.
