On April 21, 2025, the Whitelock Art Center in New York officially announced: “Chaos Code – 2025 New York International Art Competition” will be exhibited online from April 22 to May 22. At the same time, the list of winners will be formally released to mainstream and major art media outlets.
Titled “Chaos Code”, this year’s art competition and exhibition focus on the unprecedented identity dilemmas faced by individuals in today’s rapidly evolving digital age. Chaos and order, freedom and control weave together in artistic creation. A central theme of the competition is how artists explore new creative paths along the ever-shifting boundaries of culture and technology. The exhibition also raises pressing questions: What defines “humanity” in this highly digitized era? And can art still retain its essence of freedom and independence in the face of rapid technological advancement? These reflections form a critical, reflective, and creative response to contemporary society.
This year’s New York International Art Competition received submissions from over 1,800 artists worldwide. The judging process employed a peer-review scoring system, strictly implementing a double-blind review mechanism across both preliminary and final rounds. The academic jury for this international competition includes renowned American artist David Mason, prominent German artist Julia Holtmann, and Samantha Lee, Artistic Director of the Whitelock Art Center in New York, along with two other invited jury members from different countries. These jurors come from internationally recognized art institutions, curatorial teams, art critics, and globally influential artists, ensuring the professionalism and authority of the selection process.
The winners of the Grand Prize, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards hail from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, Denmark, Israel, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, and Estonia. Among them, the Grand Prize is awarded to the top-scoring artist selected from the Gold Award recipients, in recognition of their groundbreaking artistic expression and international impact.
List of Award Winners:
Exhibition Grand Prize: Robert Obier
Gold Awards:
Gold Award in Painting: Alexandra Finkelchtein
Gold Award in Video Art: Maurizio Zoccola
Gold Award in Photography: Meiling Li
Gold Award in Digital Art: Shijie Hai / Luciano Caggianello
Silver Awards:
Darko Stanic / Peep Ainsoo / Fusheng Bao / Cameron Lings / Pan Huang / Yishan / Dmitry Kemell
Bronze Awards:
Chey Isola / Drake Fu / Eugen Serbanescu / Michelle Oconis / Reagan Burns / Hanzhu / Yangang Wang / Cheng Yang / Hao Zhang / Anton Sazonov / LauraHu / Peiyang (Camille) Li / Yu Liu / Maii Fallara / Dale Zhou&Hongxiang Zhou / Nao Kimata / Ningxin Zhang / Xingdu Wang / Susanne Layla Petersen
The following are the judging rules for the “Chaos Code – 2025 New York International Art Competition.” All award-winning artists were selected through a blind review process based on the criteria below.
Judging Rules
Judging Method: This competition adopted a peer-review, double-blind scoring mechanism. The jury is composed of professionals from art centers, galleries, curatorial teams, art critics, and internationally renowned artists, ensuring a professional and authoritative evaluation process.
Evaluation Criteria: All reviews adhered to five core principles: fairness and impartiality, academic rigor, forward-looking perspective, innovation, contemporary expression, and cultural diversity.
Grand Prize Selection: The Grand Prize is awarded to the highest-scoring artist among the Gold Award nominees across all categories.
Gold Award Scoring Mechanism: Each artist was scored by the jury based on the academic quality of their work and their artistic background. The maximum score is 100 points. A minimum of 60 points is required to be shortlisted for the Gold Award. Entries scoring below 60 points are automatically reassigned to the Silver Award evaluation category.
Silver Award Scoring Mechanism: Silver Awards are also scored on a 0–100 scale, with 60 points as the passing threshold. Works scoring below 60 points are transferred to the Bronze Award category.
Bronze Award Evaluation Mechanism: Bronze Award winners are selected independently by the internal judging team of the organizer—Whitelock Art Center.
The following presents selected works by some of the award-winning artists:
Grand Prize Winner
Exhibition Grand Prize：Robert Obier “Renaissance Man 2.0 – (Science#2)”
Gold Awards
Gold Award in Painting：Alexandra Finkelchtein “Looking At Minimalistic Art”
Gold Award in Video Art：Maurizio Zoccola “(Glitch/V Project)”
Gold Award in Photography: Meiling Li “Cocoon Series 3”
Gold Award in Digital Art: Shijie Hai “Being Liked Vanity Boy 2”
Gold Award in Digital Art: Luciano Caggianello “POINT and COMMA”
Silver Awards
Silver Awards: Peep Ainsoo “Que Será, Será”
Silver Awards: Fusheng Bao “Entangle 114”
Media Contact
Company Name: Whitelock Art Center
Contact Person: Samantha Lee
Country: United States
Website: https://www.whitelockartcenter.com/exhibition/chaos-code