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Gina Kim awarded Sebastian Walker Award for Illustration
Gina Kim has been awarded the Sebastian Walker Award for Illustration, run by Walker Books in collaboration with Anglia Ruskin University’s Cambridge School of Art’s MA in Children’s Book Illustration. Claire Sahara Lemp and Aditi Andini were highly commended.
The award was presented at a private viewing of the course exhibition, held at the Candid Arts Trust Gallery in London, which is open between 13th to 17th February.
Kim is an illustrator based in Seoul, Korea, and uses a variety of media to create art, from traditional to digital. “I find pleasure in using different mediums flexibly in accordance with the story, believing that the unique spontaneity of each medium adds unexpected joy to the narrative," she said. "Designing characters and creating the worlds they inhabit always excites me, and I particularly love imaginative drawings filled with fantasy elements.”
The award was created in 2011 to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Sebastian Walker, the founder of Walker Books, and is presented to the most promising graduate of the programme. New graduates get the opportunity to have their portfolio considered by Walker for a potential picture book project.
Kim joins previous winners and shortlistees who have since published- or will publish- with Walker Books, including Flavia Z Drago, whose book, Gustavo, the Shy Ghost (Walker Books) won the Klaus Flugge Award, and who is this year’s Illustrator of the Fair at the London Book Fair. Last year’s winner was Justin Worsley.
The Walker judges this year were Ben Norland, Deirdre McDermott, Nghiem Ta and Anne-Louise Jones. “Sebastian Walker was a real renegade in our industry, a proper champion of bold and innovative illustrative talent, and this prize in his honour is one of the best ways that we can continue his legacy," picture book publisher McDermott said. "Gina Kim’s portfolio crept up on us, and we found ourselves returning to look at her work, which struck us as highly original and playful."
