Ashbourne students victorious at Art Explosion

We are delighted that once again Ashbourne has excelled in the Art Explosion competition, with prizes for Yi-Huan Lin and Doan Tran Phuong Mai, who was the overall winner! The victors are rewarded with a variety of prizes, most notably the exhibition of the winning work in October at the prestigious Saatchi Gallery. Success in this competition is undoubtedly a boost to the career of any up-and-coming artist! An earlier winner, former Ashbourne student Amy Hyam, has just gained a place at Oxford University’s Ruskin School of Art.

Artwork by Yi-Huan Lin

Mai, who came to Ashbourne from Ho Chi Minh City, won this year’s competition with a collage painting of a market in Venice, which she encountered on Ashbourne’s art trip in October. The trip also introduced her to the work of Sigmar Polke, the subject of a large exhibition in the Palazzo Grassi, which profoundly affected her with its range of imagery, materials and techniques. Mai is interested in studying product design in the future but, as her success at Art Explosion shows, her work draws on remarkable technical skills in fine art.

Artwork by Doan Tran Phuong Mai