Alumna Yuri Yuan '21 Named as Finalist for 2021 AXA Art Prize
Alumna Yuri Yuan ’21 was recently named one of the finalists of the 2021 AXA Art Prize Competition. One of the most prestigious student art competitions in the US, the prize shines a spotlight on the re-emergence of figurative art and the undiscovered stars of its future.
Yuan was among the 40 finalists selected from a pool of over 600 applicants. As a finalist, Yuan will be considered for the competition’s First Prize of $10,000 and Second Prize of $5,000. The two winners will be selected by an esteemed panel of artist jurors: Bo Bartlett, Rachel Feinstein, Elizabeth Peyton, Calida Garcia Rawles, and Peter Saul.
Previous winners of the AXA Art Prize have gone on to great success: 2018 winner Monica Ikegwu was signed to a Los Angeles based gallery and 2019 winner Anna Park recently held a solo exhibition in Rome.
You can see Yuan’s selected artwork, “A Train” (48 x 30 inches, oil on canvas, 2021) here. The works will soon be featured in the competition’s virtual gallery, which currently features the artwork of previous competition finalists and winners. In addition to the virtual exhibition, the finalists’ artwork will be exhibited live during November 2021 at the New York Academy of Art in New York City.
The First Prize and Second Prize winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in November 2021.
Yuan recently made her solo exhibition debut at Make Room Gallery in Los Angeles, California. The show, Moments of Being, in Los Angeles, CA. The show featured paintings made during her first and second years of graduate school at Columbia University.
Yuri Yuan (b.1996) was born in China, grew up in Singapore, and gained a BFA with Distinction from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2019. Yuan’s works have been shown at The ROOM Contemporary Art in Venice, Italy; ArtForum International; Sullivan Galleries, Chicago and Siragusa Gallery at SAIC, Chicago. Yuan has been awarded many distinguished awards: Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Institutional Scholarship, Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, and SAIC Travel Scholarship.