More video game art is now museum quality

[Woodmonkey]

LOS ANGELES - In a step toward acceptance as fine art, video games have spawned their own pictures at an exhibition.

In one, a luminescent Dali-esque jellyfish illuminates the depths. Another poses a quartet of heroically fashioned warriors in a hazy silhouette. A third offers a setting suitable for Heironymus Bosch.
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These are three of 16 pieces selected from nearly 300 submissions in the fifth annual Into the Pixel exhibition unveiled this week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo here.

"The fact that the professional curators of the museum world thought it was in keeping with culture and for the greater good of the public is what makes our program so unique," says Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

The academy and the Entertainment Software Association began the event in 2003 as a way to celebrate the 10th annual expo (called E3), which the ESA operates.
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Curators from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Getty Museum join video game experts on the jury. "I have no trouble looking at their work and asking myself the same set of questions that I ask about old masters, but I don't compare them to old or new masters," says Louis Marchesano, collections curator of prints and drawings at L.A.'s Getty Research Institute. "In the final analysis, they have to stand on their own. Are they worth looking at? Do they get to me and play my emotions?"

For instance, looking at Rapunzel, an image from American McGee's Grimm created by Tyler Lockett, Marchesano noted: "I love the quilt-like patterns and the flat world; it's completely unexpected, enchanting and enticing. The contrast between the house and the power of the patterned cut-out forms points to a very sophisticated artistic sensibility that plays with simplicity, balance and form."

He heralds the work of artists such as Tyler West, Stephane Martiniere and Daniel Dociu, who have repeatedly landed slots in the exhibition.

"It's nice that our work is being recognized just as art," says West, who has two images in the exhibition, done for NCsoft's game Guild Wars (Canyon Dwelling and Cavern Suspension). "It is great to see this printed out as large archival and framed. When you put a frame around it, it kind of legitimizes it. Once you see it, you understand that this is some serious skilled craftsmanship from some of the better artists out there."

The Source

[Scrappy]

Cool, finally legitimacy for cg artists Cool beans