'Into The Pixel' Adds 17 Pieces To Game Art Exhibit

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced the seventeen pieces of video game concept art that will join its permanent collection this year, it reported Wednesday. The pieces were individually submitted after a call for submissions in March. As always, the exhibit will be viewable at the Los Angeles Convention Center during E3 next month. "Now that public institutions have accepted video games as a legitimate form of art, there is no question that video game art has and will continue to have a place in the contemporary art scene," said Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences president Martin Rae. "The AIAS is pleased to partner with the ESA in this celebration, and is looking forward to continue pushing the recognition of our artist members’ efforts." The following pieces, which can be viewed here, were selected by this year's jurors. Note that one selection, "Paper World," comes from a Namco Bandai Wii game of the same name that does not appear to have been announced by the company. A Namco Bandai representative we spoke to said that she was unfamiliar with the game, and neither the AIAS nor artist Damian Kim immediately responded to a request for clarification. [Update: Namco Bandai senior art director Hoang Nguyen clarified Paper World for us by email, saying that the game was not announced because it is still in a pre-production state, and may not end up being a commercial product.] "Amorphous Drake" by Lucas Graciano for Legends of Norrath (Sony Online Entertainment) "The Bridge" by Erik Zaring & Anders Gustafsson for The Dream Machine (Cockroach Inc.) "The Cottage" by Hamzah Kasom Osman for Drawn 3 (Big Fish Games) "Cronos Battle" by Tyler Breon for God of War III (SCEA/Santa Monica Studio) "Dead Walking" by Chris Moffitt, Brad Crow, Nathan Stefan, Bart Tiongson for Orcs Must Die! (Robot Entertainment) "The Dragon Play" by Brian Thompson and Hamzah Kasom Osman for Drawn: Dark Flight (Big Fish Games) "Flemmeth" by Matt Rhodes for Dragon Age 2 (BioWare) "Good Friends" by Matthew Halpin, Andrew Matthews, Matthew Preece, Radek Walachnia, John Laws for Kinectimals (Frontier Developments Ltd) "Grim Exploits" by Colin Foran, Claire Hummel, Ryan Wilkerson for Trenched (Microsoft Game Studio/Doublefine) "Incident at the Workshop" by Ivan Simoncini for Alien Swarm (Valve Software) "Market Fire, Columbia (Shop Sweeper)" by Ben Lo for BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games) "Normandy" by Mikko Kinnunen for Mass Effect 2 (BioWare) "Oktonok Cay Cannery" by David Guertin for Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One (Insomniac Games) "Paper World" by Say Oh and Damian Kim for Paper World (Namco Bandai Games) "The Pelican Inn (Pub)" by Andrew Kim for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Naughty Dog, Inc.) "Stahl Arms" by Jesse van Dijk for Killzone 3 (Guerrilla) "Swamp Skull" (Pictured, above) by Jeff Haynie for Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull (Big Fish Games) More information on the exhibit is available on its official website.