Lauding the artist’s use of “slashes, splinters, gestures and sense of energy,” organizers at the Maine Center for Creativity named Venezuelan Jaime Gili the winner of its global design competition to create a massive public art project on oil tanks in South Portland.

The winning design, which comes with a $20,000 prize, was announced Wednesday at a press conference at the new Mercy Hospital, which has a view of several Sprague Energy oil tanks.

Jean Maginnis, who organized the competition, pointed to a “small” tank next to an oil tank emblazoned with the Sprague name, which can been seen from Interstate 295. She said that oil tank would be the first to be painted, after her group raises the $1.2 million needed to fund the state’s largest public art project.

Gili’s design – which has been described as “street art” and similar to graffiti – is an abstract work that mixes bold and earthy colors of blues, grays and oranges against a sky-blue background.

Gili now lives in London. He has art work in public collections at Saatchi Gallery and Christie’s Contemporary in London, as well as Banco Mercantil in Caracas, L’Oreal in Madrid and the University of Essex.

Oil tank design winner named