NVIDIA and CGSociety Announce NVArt Award Winners

 

 

For further information, contact:

Calisa Cole
NVIDIA Corporation
(408) 486-6263
ccole@nvidia.com

Annie O'Neil
CGSociety/Ballistic Media
+61 88 463 1866
annie@ballisticmedia.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, welcomes guests at a reception held at the San Jose Museum of Art, Feb. 1, 2008 to announce the winners of the NVArt digital art challenge.

Lorne Lanning, founder of Oddworld Inhabitants, discusses his perspectives on art with guests at an NVIDIA reception at the San Jose Museum of Art, Feb. 1, 2008.

SANTA CLARA, CA and ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA─FEBRUARY 4, 2008—NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) and CGSociety today announced the winners of the NVArt digital art challenge, the first in a series of worldwide competitions to be held during 2008.

The theme of the inaugural challenge was “Amazing Creations.” Artists were invited to submit computer-generated imagery that could exist only in a virtual, imaginary world. The winning art was unveiled at a reception at the San Jose Museum of Art on February 1. The event was keynoted by NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang and featured remarks from digital arts gurus Lorne Lanning of Oddworld Inhabitants and Mark Snoswell of CGSociety.

“The digital arts community and NVIDIA are natural partners. As NVIDIA graphics technology becomes increasingly programmable, it provides artists with an infinite palette for expressing their ideas,” commented Mr. Huang. “NVIDIA has always been inspired by the incredible creativity of 3D artists and content creators. NVArt is our way of celebrating and recognizing their creativity.”

“Throughout the ages, artists have been dreamers and visionaries, creating truly amazing and inspiring works of art,” added Mark Snoswell, president of CGSociety, a global organization for digital artists. “But they have been limited by the physical media in which they work. The NVArt competition embodies the attraction of digital art: the opportunity to create compelling images free from physical limitations.”

The winning art will be displayed at the San Jose Museum of Art through February 8. The art is available for viewing online at http://events.cgsociety.org/NVArt/01/winners.php.

Award Winners

• 1st place: "Growth of Cubic Bacteria" by Václav Pajkrt, Czech Republic
• 2nd place: "Corner Fire" by Brett Keyes, Canada
• 3rd place: "Leopardo" by Najeeb El-Faith, Saudi Arabia

Honorable mention:

• "Fractalissimo" by François Coulon, France
• "Many Ways" by Ramiro Amilcar Fernandez, Argentina
• "The Birth of Crystal - The Begin II" by Alvin Tea, New Zealand
• "Alien Biomechanical Shapes 00.2 - Alien Core" by Maciej Frolow, Poland
• "Torn" by Monsit Jangariyawong, Thailand
• "Coral Sim" by Brett Keyes, Canada
• "Rest of Sinews" by Václav Pajkrt, Czech Republic

Judging
The submissions were reviewed by a distinguished panel of judges, including:

• Pascal Blanche, Ubisoft
• Francisco Cortina, 3D Artist
• Lorne Lanning, Oddworld Inhabitants
• Stephan Martinere, Midway Games
• JoAnne Northrup, San Jose Museum of Art
• Shelley Page, Dreamworks
• Mark Snoswell, CGSociety
• Steven Stahlberg, Androidblues
• David Wright, NVIDIA

About NVArt
The first NVArt challenge was launched in October 2007 with the “Amazing Creations” theme. The next NVArt challenge theme is "Architecture and Landscape." Submissions are due on March 10, 2008. For more information, go to http://events.cgsociety.org.

About the San Jose Museum of Art
Established in 1969, the San Jose Museum of Art is a distinct voice in the San Francisco Bay Area arts community. The Museum is recognized for its contemporary collection, which reflects the West Coast contextualized by national and international visual art. The collection exhibits the unique evolution of the institution from a small civic art gallery to a museum in the tenth largest city in the United States. For more information, visit www.sanjosemuseumofart.org.

About CGSociety
CGSociety is a respected and accessible global organization for creative digital artists. CGSociety supports artists at every level by offering a range of services to connect, inform, educate, and promote, by celebrating achievement, excellence, and innovation in all aspects of digital art. CGSociety, along with Ballistic Publishing, is a division of Ballistic Media. For more information, visit www.cgsociety.org.

About NVIDIA
NVIDIA is the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance processor which generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on workstations, personal computers, game consoles, and mobile devices. NVIDIA serves the entertainment and consumer market with its GeForce® products, the professional design and visualization market with its Quadro® products, and the high-performance computing market with its Tesla™ products. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. For more information, visit www.nvidia.com.

Certain statements in this release including, but not limited to, statements as to the uses, benefits, and programmability of NVIDIA graphics technology are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: loss of performance of when products are used together; our reliance on third-parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; manufacturing or software defects; the impact of technological development and competition; changes in industry standards and interfaces as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-Q for the period ended October 28, 2007. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on our website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.