The Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize, which seeks to award young Asian artists working with the medium of digital art, announced its second iteration recently. This time, the Prize is expanding beyond Southeast Asia to include artists from India and Greater China. The Prize is open to the residents of the three regions, who should be aged between 21 and 40 years old at the time of submission; they need not be the citizens of these regions. The Prize will include an inaugural three-month Art and Technology Accelerator programme for the six artists who will make the cut. The programme will help them develop a new piece of digital art. The Prize is also aimed at preparing the winners to become creative entrepreneurs, ready for the digital age.

From a prize pool of $60,000, the six winners this year will each receive $10,000 and a place on a virtual Art x Tech Accelerator Programme, led by non- profit organisation The MeshMinds Foundation. Julias Baer, the leading Swiss wealth management company, has been in business for over 130 years.  The company is marking its presence in India and Greater China and has been making an effort to support arts in the region under its CSR initiative. The art prize encourages and supports the aptitude of talented artists to help them become masters in the digital era. 

The Prize is supported by an advisory board, six members of the jury and mentors. Every application will be reviewed and six winners will then be selected for incubation and be mentored by leading luminaries from the art and business worlds. These six works will be showcased via an interactive virtual exhibition in the second half of 2023.

According to a release, the Prize offers participating artists a unique opportunity to develop new works with guidance from experts in art and technology. Participating artists may also be invited to a gathering of pioneering artists, creative practitioners, and entrepreneurs, who are championing the arts in Asia. They will become part of a thriving community and benefit from collaboration, feedback, support, new opportunities, and friendship.

The Prize is dedicated to the digital age, taking into account the rise of NFT (non-fungible token) in the art world. It has a larger vision and aims to nurture the young artists between the age group of 21 to 40 to discover and promote emerging voices, ideas, expressions and creativity. It is set to play a crucial role in defining and pushing the boundaries of the digital art media across Asia.   

“The rapid development of digital technologies has revolutionised the art landscape, where digital art is fast becoming a prominent medium. Through the Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize, we herald a new era of arts and support its progressive direction by nurturing and awarding emerging next-generation artists. Asia is our second home market, and with our long history of supporting art, we are thrilled to be continuing with the second edition of the Next Generation Art Prize following its successful premiere in 2021, and to extend the artist line-up beyond Southeast Asia to include all of Asia this year,” said Jimmy Lee, Member of the Executive Board, Julius Baer Group Ltd and Head Asia Pacific.

“By dedicating the Prize to the digital image, a medium that is already fast becoming the visual currency of everyday life in the twenty-first century, we wish to engage and empower the talent of the future. The Prize underlines the importance of Julius Baer’s support of the arts and young talent, as well as a recognition of the current shifting frontiers in life and work,” Lee added. 

At its heart, the Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize is about elevating cultural diversity and technological advancement in the arts for young artists looking to build their body of artistic work and professional networks. About 100 applicants to the Prize will be longlisted in January 2023 and invited to attend virtual sessions, talks and workshops conducted by luminaries in the digital art world who comprise that panel of judges, advisory board and mentors. The sessions, designed to enrich and fuel inspiration of the young talents working with digital art mediums, are free to attend for the invited artists.

The entries are open from 19 October 2022 to 27 November 2022 at https://www.juliusbaer.com/en/spotlight/next-generation-art-prize/

Prize invites artists residing in India, Greater China, and Southeast Asia, aged 21 to 40, to submit concept proposals in a specialised digital medium of their choice. Longlisted artists will be invited to submit their proposed digital art concepts that must be related to the themes of the Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize. Only proposals for digital art will be considered. Digital art can either be understood as any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process, or, more specifically, as computational art that uses and engages with digital media. These concepts can range in digital media, such as graphic images, videos, generative art, augmented or virtual reality, or interactive art.  Proposed concepts must be for artwork in any digital medium (listed below), size, format, genre or approach, as long as it engages digital media in its creation process.

Digital mediums: Static 2D/3D Image; Animated 2D/3D Video; Generative Art; Augmented/ Virtual Reality Art; Interactive Art.

The Winners: The winners will showcase their winning concepts in a virtual and interactive art exhibition in July 2023. 

Themes: As part of Julius Baer’s long-term vision for the future, artists are invited to address themes on sustainability or any of these next generation investment themes identified by Julius Baer:

Arising Asia: The growing economies and expanding middle classes of emerging Asia.

Digital Disruption: The phenomenon of digitalisation, which is affecting every corner of our lives.

Energy Transition: The shift from fossil fuels to new sources of energy.
Feeding the World: Sustainable food production for a 10-billion world population by 2050.

Shifting Lifestyles: Aging populations and extended longevity are altering global lifestyles.

Future Cities: The opportunities and challenges related to a more and more city-centric world.
Inequality: The opportunities and challenges related to the vast topic of inequality.
Sustainability: The strategy that enables a shift towards a more equitable future and healthier planet for the generations to come.

Judging Criteria: The judging panel will be looking out for artworks based on, amongst others, the following criteria:

• Relevance to the themes of the Prize

• Artistic excellence and innovation

• Integration of digital methods and components

• Synergy between technology and the arts

The Jury: The Jury includes artists Refik Anadol and Shubigi Rao; curator Fu LiaoLiao; Shivajirao Gaekwar from Sotheby’s, India; Theresa McCullough, Asian Civilisations Museum; Simon Fisher from Ocula.

Refik Anadol: internationally acclaimed new media Artist and NFT Pioneer.

Simon Fisher: Co-Founder of Ocula

Fu LiaoLiao: Shanghai-based independent Curator

Shivajirao Gaekwar: Deputy Director, Specialist for Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, Sotheby’s (India)

Theresa McCullough: Principal Curator for South and Southeast Asian Art at Asian Civilisations Museum

Shubigi Rao: Award-winning multidisciplinary Singaporean Artist

Mentors: Sergiu Ardelean, Co-Founder and CEO at Artivive; Chao Jiaxing, Consultant Curator, Start Museum, WestBund, China; Ina Conradi, Award-winning new media artist, Associate Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Unnikrishna Menon Damodaran, visual artist and digital specialist; Audrey Yeo, Founder of Yeo Workshop.

Advisory Board: Paul Abraham, Founder of Sarmaya, India; Christine Chan-Chiu, Co-Founder AARRTT, Hong Kong; Tammy Gur, Senior Design Art Director at Artsy; Honor Harger, Vice-President of ArtScience Museum, Singapore; Venus Lau, independent Curator, Shanghai; Clara Che Wei Peh, Art Lead and Curator of Appetite, Singapore.

Important Dates: October-November 2022: Launch of Art Prize, Open call for submissions, meet the judges and mentors virtual session.

January 2023: Virtual Programme for Artist Community, Deadline for Concept Proposals to be submitted

March 2023: Announcement of Six Winners

March -June 2023: Three-month Art x Tech Accelerator Programme with Mentor Workshops, Creation and completion of Winners’ artworks

July 2023: Interactive virtual showcase of Winners’ artworks

Last year, the art prize received a total of 204 entries. “The number of entries exceeded our expectations. We are pleased that this prize has helped to galvanize the region’s burgeoning art scene as well as culturally diverse and technologically advanced arts community. Many of the entries are outstanding and we look forward to present to the world, selected works of these Southeast Asian digital artists,” said Jason Moo, Head Private Banking Southeast Asia, and Manager of Singapore Branch, Julius Baer.

Last year, the winners across two categories included included Shwe Wutt Hmon (Myanmar), Robert Zhao (Singapore) and Fajar Riyanto (Indonesia) in the Still Images Category; and Mark Chua & Lam Li-Shuen (Singapore), Khiev Kanel (Cambodia) and Arief Budiman (Indonesia) in the Moving Images Category.

The panel of jurors in the inaugural Prize included Barbara Staubli, Curator of The Julius Baer Art Collection in Switzerland; Dr. Wiyu Wahono, Art Collector based in Indonesia; Dr. Cheryl Loh, Contemporary Art Collector and practicing doctor based in Singapore; Audrey Yeo, Gallerist of Yeo Workshop in Singapore, and Inti Guerrero, Curator based in Manila.