Exhibition Dates & Location
This exhibition features works by the prize-winners of the Langley Arts Council's 2024 BC Wide Portrait Competition! The 2024 Portrait Competition and Live Painting Event took place at the Arts Council Main Hall Gallery in the Aldergrove Kinsmen Community Center on September 28th, where 9 artists competed for prizes. Masoud Habibyan was awarded first place, with Alex Greghi and Mani Dhaliwal receiving the Honorable Mention prizes.
The 2024 Portrait competition Winners Exhibition is on display June 28th - August 11th 2025, in the Township of Langley Civic Building 2nd Floor Gallery (20338 65 Ave, Langley, BC V2Y 3J1). The Civic Facility hours are Monday to Friday 8:30am-4:30pm.
About the Artists
Masoud Habibyan - First Place Award Winner
Masoud’s interest in art started as a child growing up in a family of artists, including his uncles. He started drawing at the age of five and drew everything in sight. Masoud’s ability to draw was so advanced by the age of 11 that his teacher accused him of cheating when he drew a head of a horse from a modeling book. She then slapped him for it. Soon after, she realized she was mistaken and in tears, she hugged Masoud and apologized. This was a turning point for Masoud and confirmation that he had talent to draw and a gift for art. From then on, his teacher became one of his greatest supporters.
Masoud Habibyan specialized in Art in high school where he pursued drawing and Anatomy. He used to draw over 30 drawings every day for more than 4 years and ended up top in his class.
Masoud graduated with a Bachelor of Design and worked as an animation project manager for a couple of years. He has dedicated his whole life to art. He also enjoys music and plays Accordion in the Araz Music Ensemble.
Throughout the years Masoud has been inspired by old masters such as Ilya Repin, Sargent and the French Impressionists. He has studied with Jeremy Lipking and Robert Johnson but over the last few years master artist, Dan Gerhartz has been his greatest influence. Dan has also been a personal mentor to Masoud and under his direction Masoud’s work grew and developed and his own individual style emerged.
He paints his figures in natural settings that evoke a sense of timeless idealism. He also excels as a commission portrait artist who is able to capture the likeness of his subjects perfectly.
Alex Greghi - Honorable Mention Award Winner
Alex Greghi is a realist artist and an art educator. Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, now he lives and work in Langley, BC, Canada. His journey towards art happened through advertising. After years of learning drawing and painting, the advertising work lost it’s focus and was replaced by the work as an artist and art educator.
He is co-founder of Atelier Contraponto (studio), where he taught drawing and painting in São Paulo. He also worked in Fundação Casa, a correction facility for minors, teaching drawing to incarcerated teenagers. In Canada he taught his method for 6 years at the Langley Arts Council and he is still teaching in respected art centers such as the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, South Surrey & White Rock Art Society and private.
His work is realist and pictorial. It emphasizes the feeling of reality, not a simple copy of it. It strives for movement and subjectivity, through abstraction and a translation of what is seen. The technique transfers the reality to the support.
He is a participant of many exhibits both in Canada, Brazil and internationally (London, Paris, Rome), since 2006.
Mani Dhaliwal - Honorable Mention Award Winner
Manmeet Dhaliwal (Mani D) is a student of art. When not at his day job as an Engineer, he is learning and practicing the skills of drawing and painting, and has been doing so for 10 years. His inspirations include Jeffrey Watts, Jeremy Lipking, Anders Zorn, and many others. He prefers painting in oil, and drawing with charcoal. Currently he is focused on portraiture and landscapes, but is always experimenting with various mediums, techniques, and subject matters, to find his ultimate style. He enjoys painting en plein air, outdoors in the summer, and taking commission or doing personal work in his studio the rest of the year.