GEISAI Taiwan Report 6/ Seiichi Kamei Personal Award

As everyone knows, our GEISAI Taiwan jury was composed of Seiichi Kamei, Yoshitomo Nara, and GEISAI Chairman Takashi Murakami. Though there were only three names on the panel, as many as 8 personal awards were given out!
Here, we would like to introduce you to these 8 works, all of which rivaled the selecting artist themselves in their distinctive qualities.

Today, we report on the 3 awardees of Seiichi Kamei Prize!!!

●Seiichi Kamei Prize

Rabbit and Panda/Chen Yi-Ta

Chen Yi-Ta graduated from the Visual Communication Design department of Kun Shan University. Having turned 26 this year, he told us that art had at one time been part of his daily life but after graduating from university and beginning work, he found it difficult to balance the two.
Becoming aware of the determination and careful planning needed to truly realize his ideas, Mr. Chen decided to quit his job as a brand designer and focus exclusively on his career as an artist. In 2008 he launched his own label, selling signed T-shirts adorned with his illustrations at “Creativity Market”.

However, the artist assured us that “product design is not my true intention. I plan to shift focus to pursue greater artistic quality.” He then continued with much humility: “My receiving this award was nothing more than luck. There were plenty of other great artists but I just happened to be experienced at using space to convey my concepts. I think Mr. Kamei picked up on that.”
Mr. Chen also told us that he’d gotten a lot of ideas from GEISAI Taiwan and that he planned to hold a solo exhibition in 2010.

www.raxxit.com
www.yidachen.com


Wang Chien Yang

After graduating from the Fine Arts department of National Taiwan University of Arts, Wang began work as an artist while still in high school. For most of those years he focused mainly on oil painting but after graduating from university, he began to devote himself to photography. As a freelance camera man, the majority of his output consists of photographs of dance and portraits. “At first, all I wanted was a chance to exhibit and show my work to friends,” he told us. “I never imagined I would win an award. Receiving this from Mr. Kamei will do a great deal for my confidence and I feel more motivated and have more courage to continue tackling the challenge of being an artist.” He later told us that he wants to work with a bigger space for his next exhibition and to publish a series of photos on his home.


Chan Tzu-Feng

Born in 1976, artist Chan Tzu-Feng is hearing impaired. However, he has used this to his advantage, evoking the silence of his inner world through photographs. Mr. Chan told us he chose photography because the camera allows him to preserve the ever fleeting present moment. “Many of the things I see now won’t exist in the future. But with a camera, I can record them,” he explained.
Though Mr. Chan was surprised at his receipt of the award, he saved his greatest thanks for the friend who took him to see the Sanzhi UFO houses. “When I took these photographs, it was right before the houses were torn down.”
Lastly, Mr. Chan had these comments. “By participating in GEISAI Taiwan, I met many talented artists and gained many new ideas. Because of this, I feel like the possibilities for the photos I can take have really broadened and grown.” Mr. Chan’s next works will be a series focused on his current themes.

The above are the three winners of juror Seiichi Kamei’s personal award. All three were highly inspired by their time at GEISAI Taiwan and were able to discover a path forward into the future. We can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Congratulations to Mr. Chen Yi-Ta, Mr. Wang Chien Yang, and Mr. Chan Tzu-Feng!
And thank you Mr. Seiichi Kamei!!!

Further details on the award winning works can be seen here.
http://tw.geisai.net/g12/feature/winner1.php