In this, the fourth NVArt competition, artists were invited to recreate their most imaginative fantasies in the style of master surrealist, Jacek Yerka. They did so in good measure, with 400 entries sent in from 65 countries. In an age where virtuality meets reality the surreal has become real.

“When we set the topic for this, the fourth, NVArt competition we were not sure we had done the right thing. We worried that it may have been too confining in its requirement for entrants to create surreal art in the style of Jacek Yerka, a living master of the genre.

We were wrong – this competition has generated some of the most outstanding art we have seen and some of the most passionate endorsements from entrants. One entrant was so moved that they put pen to paper and sent us an old fashioned written letter praising the topic and saying that it had been a fantastic learning experience which we should repeat!"
– Mark Snoswell.

CGSociety brought together an impressive bunch of industry luminaries to judge the many entries. Each judge voted and gave their appraisal, some comments are included here for all to see.

In the panel, we had Shelley Page, Head of International Outreach, Dreamworks; Lorne Lanning, Co Founder/President/Creative Director, Oddworld Inhabitants; Tim Borgmann, 3D Artist/ Concept Artist; Staszek Marek, Freelance 3D artist and winner of NVArt2: Art Space; Heiko Klug, Digital Media Designer and winner of NVArt3: Design Fusion; Pascal Blanche, Concept Artist/Art Director and 3D Artist, Ubisoft; David Wright, Creative Director, NVIDIA; and Mark Snoswell, President, The CGSociety.

Visit the Judges page on the NVArt Surreal website »

And the 1'st winner is

Gediminas Pranckevicius (imperioli)

Vilnius, LITHUANIA.
'Time'
Graphics card used: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+.

"I am very happy and thankful for this incredible Easter present I have received from you! But as the competition was coming to an end I realized that again I hadn’t managed to find the TIME to create something new. I locked myself alone at home, turned off the phone and worked almost three days without any sleep. Which clearly represents my mood during its creation."
- Gediminas Pranckevicius.

Judges Comments:

Lorne Lanning:
“This work embodied the very heart of the competition. Inspired by and remained true to the theme, yet the artist has taken their effort further into an area of mystery thru simplicity. A beautiful work that leaves the viewer with endless possibilities that lie past our initial, surreal impression.”

Tim Borgmann:

“What I like most here is the great color and mood of the water. It works very well because of the contrast to the 'warm' wood parts on the right side. Also the composition is very good balanced. But it's definitely the water that attracts my eyes most. Everytime I look at the image and look at all the small details my eyes are switching back to the water and wandering off in it's calm deepness."

PRIZES:
Gediminas wins US$10,000 cash plus 2 NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800 4GB - 240 CUDA Processors.

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