Congyu Liu, Palace, 2023, Archival inkjet print, silk, scroll, 32 x 48 x 3 in. California Institute of the Arts. 2024 Alpay Scholarship Award recipient.
NOW TRENDING: 8th Annual Alpay Scholarship Exhibition
June 8 – July 6, 2024
Current art and media students from Southern California colleges and universities were invited to submit engaging new work to be showcased in Palos Verdes Art Center’s 8th Annual Alpay Scholarship Exhibition, Now Trending. This call was open only to currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students in Southern California. The 2024 recipient of the $5000 Alpay Scholarship is Congyu Liu for her work, Palace. She is receiving her MFA from California Institute of the Arts.
JUROR: Lawrence T. Yun
Yun is a Los Angeles artist and a Professor of Art at CSU-Fullerton. He has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout California, including Santa Monica Bergamot Station’s Schomburg Gallery, Patricia Correia Gallery, and Sarah Lee Art Works/Projects as well as Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and Los Angeles International Airport. Yun’s works are represented in various private and public permanent collections, including Sony Pictures, The Franklin Mint, and Terranea Resort. Additionally, his work can be seen in television programs, including Luck (HBO), The Guardian (CBS), and Knight Rider 2008 (NBC); and movies, including Meet the Fockers (Universal Pictures), Daddy Day Care (Columbia Pictures), and Transformers (DreamWorks).
Read Juror’s Statement, below.
JUROR’S STATEMENT
With a singular central mission to showcase numerous promising creative talents who are pursuing art degrees at Southern California colleges and universities, the featured forty-seven artworks for Now Trending: 8th Annual Alpay Scholarship Exhibition provide a modest survey of the diversified and ever-expanding field of current artistic visions and practices in academics. Artists selected for this exhibition come from various campuses, including USC, UCLA, CalArts, Art Center College of Design, CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton, CSU Northridge, CSU Los Angeles, CSU San Bernardino, San Diego State University, and Loyola Marymount University, among others.
This exhibition is intended not only to amuse, but also to stimulate and encourage viewers to engage in conversations inspired by these experiences. Whether using a metaphorical narrative of personal reflection or a rhetorical statement of a broader perspective, the showcased artists have empowered their messages with the language of art strategically through the extensive range of media—stretching from traditional applications to technological fabrications. Some works are intimate, requiring up-close-and-personal investigation, while others are larger than life, calling for attention from afar. Some deliver instant sensorial satisfaction, while others provoke lingering revelations. Each has its own approach, merit, and justification.
Every juried exhibition has a unique direction and selection process determined by theme, juror, venue, etc. While it is impossible to exhibit all entries, I applaud and congratulate all applicants who have committed to submit works for this competitive event—their devotion to the arts is commendable.
Lawrence T. Yun, Juror
This exhibition is made possible, in part, through generous support from-
