Yi-Chun Lin has been announced today as the recipient of the Aspen Online Art Award 2014. Launched by Aspen in association with the Contemporary Art Society, this unique award is the first student award for commissioning online art in the UK.
Selected from a shortlist of eight artists, Yi-Chun will create a new work for Aspen’s renowned art collection and will benefit from the close support of Aspen, the Contemporary Art Society and Aspen website designers, True Digital.
Aspen’s involvement with the prize and with online art, a rapidly emerging field within contemporary art, represents Aspen’s commitment to the most cutting-edge creative practice. The award also reflects the Contemporary Art Society’s mission to identify and support emerging artists in the UK and to provide a platform to showcase important new work for the benefit of audiences across the country.
The shortlisted artists for 2014 included: Matthew Edwards (Camberwell College of Art), Svenja Frahm (London College of Communication), Hilde Krohn Huse(Slade School of Fine Art), Sheng Li (Duncan of Jordanstone College), Yi-Chun Li (London College of Communication), Russell Miller (Camberwell College of Arts), Cheryl Simmons (Slade School of Fine Art) and Milou van der Maaden(Slade School of Fine Art).
Each graduate student was nominated by their Course Director or Head of School. The new commission will be developed over the summer months and will be visible on the Aspen Award site by September 2014.
The selection panel, made up of some of Aspen’s senior executive team as well as new media curator Attilia Fattori Franchini, praised Yi-Chun for his visually stimulating proposal which draws on ancient Chinese Shan-shui paintings to provide an alternative digital landscape for contemplation.
They were impressed by the way he rethinks the virtual and physical space by using different media across the production process – from drawings to glitch scanning – to create his collection of high resolution animations.
Yi-Chun will be awarded a commission worth £4,000 in order to develop his proposal into a completed art work which will join the Aspen Art collection and will go on display on the Aspen Art website and within Aspen’s offices around the world. He will receive support from the Contemporary Art Society and True Digital, developers of Aspen’s websites.
Fabienne Nicholas, Head of Art Consultancy at the Contemporary Art Society, said: “Aspen and the Contemporary Art Society have been working together for over a year to develop this award. The Aspen Online Art Award is testament to the company’s commitment to supporting artists. Engaging with UK Universities and creating this innovative online commission opportunity, Aspen is helping eight graduate artists to take that first step in developing a market for their work. Yi-Chun Lin will receive a commission fee of £4,000 to develop his online artwork for the Aspen Collection. The Contemporary Art Society is proud to support this process, which reflects our own mission for building collections, audiences and opportunities for contemporary art.”
Chris O’Kane, Chief Executive Officer of Aspen said: “We are passionate about supporting artists, especially those whose creativity and innovation are an integral part of their work. We are proud to be assisting an emerging generation of artists through the Aspen Online Art Award at a time when support of the arts by business is critical.”