Opening Next-Gen Art Event (NGAE)

We are proud to announce that on November 21st 2014 the inaugural Next-Gen Art Event (NGAE) premieres in the Fries (Friesian) Museum in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. This unique exhibition and conference focuses on visual arts and visual game design and the relationship between contemporary art and videogames. It has been put together With participation from leading studios like Naughty Dog, BioWare, thatgamecompany, Treasure, ArenaNet, Guerrilla Games, Sucker Punch Productions and Ubisoft among others.

The inaugural event consists of an exhibition in the Fries (Friesian) Museum for visual arts, shows at multiple locations in the city of Leeuwarden and a conference for game artists, students and creatives from all over the world.

New Horizons
The Fries Museum’s exhibition New Horizons is a big part of the Next-Gen Art Event (NGAE) and explores the interplay between art and the visual design of games. Game artists stand – sometimes unconsciously - in the traditions of art history and art movements like symbolism, Romanticism and surrealism. The impossible mazes of M.C. Escher for instance have found their way in games like Echocrome and Monument Valley. In turn, contemporary artists like Harun Farocki, Studer en Van den Berg, Cory Archangel and Jennifer Steinkamp are influenced by videogames. These cross-overs lead to exciting art and games.

Over thirty projections, prints, installations, games and films take the visitor in another dimension. The New Horizons exhibition travels from a game like Pacman (now also featured in the Museum of Modern Art in New York) that consists completely in the 2D plane, to the photorealistic imagery of games like Battlefield 4 and to the artistic experiments of indie games.

Leading artists and studios
Many international game studios and game makers have contributed to this first Next-Gen Art Event (NGAE) and the New Horizons exhibition. From Swedish studio DICE both Mirror’s Edge is shown and special Battlefield 4 images from the Frostbite Engine to illustrate the development of the first person perspective and the state of real-time photorealistic graphics. Figureheads from the games-as-art discussion -Journey and Flower - are shown and a special artwork made from Treasure’s bullet hell shooters. The design of virtual cities and landscapes in games is visualized by games like Minecraft, Infamous: Second Son, Assassin’s Creed, Dear Esther and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter among others. Furthermore, many sub-exhibitions like the “Naughty Dog 30th Anniversary Show” and “Killzone: 10th Anniversary” are shown at various locations throughout the city of Leewarden.

Conference
The conference part of the Next-Gen Art Event (NGAE) consists of a 5-day program running from November 22th until the 26th and consists of master classes and workshops for (starting) game-makers, artists, students and creatives from various disciplines. Speakers from studios like Naughty Dog (The Last of Us, Uncharted), BioWare (Mass Effect, Dragon Age), Guerrilla Games (Killzone), NCSoft (Guild Wars), Sucker Punch (Infamous) and thatgamecompany (Journey, Flower) will tackle the subject of the visual languages of games and the visual design of games. Programme details here can be found at nextgenartevent.com.

Game Art shown in exhibitions (alphabetical)

Abe’s Odyssey- Oddworld
Assassin’s Creed series - Ubisoft
Battlefield 4 - DICE
Crash Bandicoot – Naughty Dog
Dear Esther – Dan Pinchbeck & Robert Briscoe
Dragon Age - BioWare
Echochrome (+ Echochrome prototype) - SCEE, Funjiki
Elite Dangerous – Frontier
Fable - Lionhead
Flower - thatgamecompany
Frostbite Engine (special video) - DICE
Guild Wars – ArenaNet (NCSoft)
Ikaruga (+ multiple bullet hell shooters from Treasure) - Treasure
Infamous: Second Son – Sucker Punch Productions
Journey - thatgamecompany
Killzone - Guerrilla
Mass Effect - BioWare
Minecraft – user generated content
Mirror’s Edge - DICE
Monument Valley – USTWO
Okami - Capcom
Portal - Valve
Street Fighter - Capcom
The Last of Us – Naughty Dog
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter – The Astronauts
Uncharted – Naughty Dog

Personal art from game/concept artists such as:

• Julien Renoult (concept artist Sunset Overdrive)
• Jan Urschel (concept artist Assassin’s Creed, Star Citizen, Borderlands)
• Maciej Kuciara (concept artist The Last of Us, Guardians of the Galaxy)
• Sven Ruthner
• Roman van der Haven
• Thomas Pringle (concept artist Halo 4, BioShock 2, Cloud Atlas)
• Arnaud Valette (Guardians of the Galaxy, Maleficent, Game of Thrones)

Key artworks from (contemporary) artists such as
• Cory Arcangel
• M.C. Escher
• Studer and van den Berg
• Jennifer Steinkamp
• Harun Farocki
• Broersen en Lukacs

Confirmed speakers game industry.

Roland Ijzermans, Art Director, Guerrilla Games (Killzone)
Mike Lester, thatgamecompany (Flower, Journey)
Daniel Dociu, Art Director ArenaNet (NCSoft) (Guild Wars)
Derek Watts, Art Director BioWare (Mass Effect, Dragon Age)
Horia Dociu, Art Director Sucker Punch Productions (Infamous: Second Son, Sly Raccoon)
John Sweeney, Concept Artist Naughty Dog (The Last of Us)
Nick Gindraux, Concept Artist Naughty Dog (The Last of Us)