World’s Best Surrealists / 2023 AMERICAN ART AWARDS: CHOI, LEE, UNIARA, WOLF, JEONG, STAVEC, RHEE, GOFMAN, RYU, RAILLOT, JUNG & KIM
Artists from 72 countries competed in the 2023 AMERICAN ART AWARDS. Twenty of the most revered galleries in the USA were sent around 2,000 online images to score in drawing, painting, sculpture, digital and photography. The 300+ winning works, 1st to 6th Place (and ties) in all 50 categories, can be seen in this series of articles.
USA’s top galleries decided winners in every medium: oil, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, pastel, realism, impressionism, naïve, abstract, expressionism, human figure, animal, landscape, fantasy, surrealism, pop, portrait, self-portrait, political, erotic, cubism, floral, humor, spiritual, etc..
Art collectors can see all the winning images and corresponding contact info to the best contemporary artists in the world here: https://americanartawards.com/2023-winning-artists-american-art-awards/
Winners in this category are from USA, SWEDEN, POLAND, GERMANY & SOUTH KOREA.
BIO OF 1ST PLACE WINNER:
My name is Heyon Choi, and I am an 11th grader attending Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts. Fine arts has been core to my identity since I was a young child, and as a high school student, I have been honing digital art skills. My style is a fusion of digital and analog media and techniques.
As an artist, I attempt to change our view of the world by inserting a vastly different timeframe in our consciousness. Thematically, I have been fascinated by world-building — the art of constructing fictional worlds. I am particularly interested in building worlds in the distant future, where nature is the protagonist. Our view of the world and our capacity to imagine the future are limited by the timespan in which we think. We are hyper-fixated on matters that are here and now, while our perception of the future is hopelessly low-resolution beyond just a few decades. Do we have the capacity to imagine the world beyond a few hundred years? How will our interactions with nature develop over time? These are questions that I investigate as an artist and invite the viewers of my artworks to explore.
ARTISTS’ CONTACTS / SEE MORE OF THE ARTISTS’ WORKS:
1st Place HEYON CHOI USA heyonchoi.ss@gmail.com “(Un)Aware” 8x12” Acrylic.
2nd Place — Tie CHANTILLY LEE USA hyunji.lee24@avenues.org “Glubby Talks” 15x10.5” Acrylic on board.
2nd Place — Tie EMILY LEE USA arume0101@gmail.com “Metacognition” 18x24" Acrylic on board.
2nd Place — Tie UNIARA SWEDEN uniara@experimental-art-and-graphic.com “Levitation” Mixed Media.
3rd Place — Tie MAJA WOLF POLAND www.majawolf.pl “From Dawn To Dusk” 50x70cm Oil on canvas.
3rd Place — Tie NATHAN JEONG USA jnathan0110@gmail.com “Napping In A Nightmare” 18x24” Oil on board.
4th Place — Tie JOE STAVEC USA https://saatchiart.com/joestavec “The Departure” 48x48” Oil on canvas.
4th Place — Tie HEYON CHOI USA heyonchoi.ss@gmail.com “Their Possible Future” 16x28” Digital.
4th Place — Tie INA RHEE USA 20255025@nvnet.org “Fading Away” 18x24” Acrylic paint.
5th Place — Tie ARIANNA GOFMAN USA ekaterinah@mac.com “Society Attacks” 12x24” Acrylic on board.
5th Place — Tie JIWOO RYU GERMANY https://julieryu0217.wixsite.com/art-site04 “Languages of Love” 72x60cm Oil on canvas.
5th Place — Tie JULIEN RAILLOT USA julienraillot3@gmail.com “Illusory Education” Acrylic on board.
6th Place — Tie DAIN JUNG SOUTH KOREA jungdain02556@branksome.asia “Poverty” 72.7x91.3cm Acrylic.
6th Place — Tie MADISON KIM USA madisonkim0316@icloud.com “Society” Acrylic.
6th Place — Tie HAILEY KIM USA njyhk7@hotmail.com “Running Out Of Time” 15x16" Pen and acrylic on paper.
In 2023, AMERICAN ART AWARDS had submissions from these 72 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Switzerland, Tobago, Trinidad, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, USA, Viet Nam, Wales, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
USA’s 20 Best Galleries & Museums who were asked to score online art in 2023 were:
American Art Awards 20 Best Galleries & Museums for 2023, in alphabetical order:
BEST IN ARIZONA: Exposures International Gallery Of Fine Art
BEST IN CALIFORNIA: Sparks Gallery
BEST IN COLORADO: Mirada Fine Art
BEST IN FLORIDA: MAC Art Galleries
BEST IN GEORGIA: Black Art In America™ (BAIA)
BEST IN INDIANA: Gallery Forty-Two
BEST IN KANSAS: CityArts
BEST IN KENTUCKY: KMAC Contemporary Art Museum
BEST IN LOUISIANA: Jonathan Ferrara Gallery
BEST IN MAINE: Clarke Gallery
BEST IN MONTANA: Cawdrey Gallery
BEST IN NEBRASKA: Kiechel Fine Art
BEST IN NEVADA: Elena Bulatova Fine Art
BEST IN NEW MEXICO: Thornwood Gallery
BEST IN NEW YORK: Gallery 23 NY
BEST IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Mary Martin Galleries Of Fine Art
BEST IN TEXAS: Ao5 Gallery
BEST IN SOUTH DAKOTA: South Dakota Art Museum
BEST IN VERMONT: Helmholz Fine Art
BEST IN WYOMING: Gallery Wild
American Art Awards https://www.americanartawards.com/ annually awards 20 museums and/or galleries, who agree to score art and award nearly 300+ deserving contemporary artists from 60+ countries: painters, photographers, sculptors and digital artists.
