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Winner of second Book Illustration Competition announced

An illustrator, who embraced the challenge of illustrating Angela Carter’s darkly subversive take on fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, has won the second Book Illustration Competition. Beating over 500 entrants, Igor Karash’s ethereal illustrations form part of a commission for a striking Folio Society edition of The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. The first copies were available at the award ceremony at the Collyer Bristow Gallery. Karash’s commission is worth £4,000, and the five runners up each received a cash prize of £500.

It was after long deliberation that the judging panel, comprising novelist, critic and cultural historian Marina Warner, renowned illustrator Angela Barrett, last year’s inaugural competition winner Matthew Richardson, and Flora Craig from House of Illustration together with Folio’s Production Director, Publisher and Art Director, selected Igor Karash, who studied book design and illustration at Ukraine’s Kharkov State Art & Design Academy, from a shortlist of six.

“Angela Carter’s visual imagination is famous for its vivid originality, and she summons pictures in every reader’s mind – this doesn’t make the illustrator’s task at all easy. But the competition was fierce and the range of submissions fascinatingly varied and vivid,”  commented Chair of Judges Marina Warner.

“Participating in the competition has been an amazing creative journey. Winning came as a nice surprise, and working on completing the illustration series was a dream project, in large part due to The Folio Society’s thoughtful artistic direction and support for my vision. I am grateful to have had this inspiring experience which has allowed me to return to the world of book illustration, a world I greatly admire and hope to continue to be a part of,” added Russian-born Igor Karash as he accepted the prize.

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Please find below a selection of the winning illustrations, which you can click on for larger images.

Igor Karash's winning illustration, number 1.Igor Karash's winning illustration, number 2.Igor Karash's winning illustration, number 3.

Igor Karash studied architecture and urban design at the Azerbaijan Architecture University in 1982, and book design and illustration at Kharkov State Art & Design Academy in Ukraine in 1988. After graduating from the Academy, Igor collaborated with Detskaya Literatura, a leading Russian children’s publishing company, and Kniga Publishing House in Moscow.

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