Awards Ceremony Held for the 2025 JW Art Awards for Artists with Disabilities

JW Lee Jongho Foundation Receives 341 Entries,
Selects 27 Award Winners

JW Lee Jongho Foundation, a public interest foundation of JW Pharmaceutical, announced on the 20th that it held the '2025 JW Art Awards' ceremony at Insa Art Center in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 19th.

2025 JW Art Awards Grand Prize Winner, Artist Kang Dayeon. JW Pharmaceutical

Now in its 11th year, the JW Art Awards is a fine art competition hosted by JW Lee Jongho Foundation to provide creative opportunities for artists with disabilities and to promote the values of diversity and inclusion in arts and culture. The late Lee Jongho, Honorary Chairman of JW Pharmaceutical, established the award in 2015 based on his belief that “people with disabilities can brighten society through cultural and artistic activities.”

The 2025 competition was held from July to August under the theme "Your Light, Our Rainbow." A total of 341 works were submitted by artists with disabilities aged 16 and over, marking the highest number of entries in the event's history.

At this year’s awards ceremony, JW Lee Jongho Foundation presented a total of 23 million won in prize money: one Grand Prize winner (5 million won), two Excellence Award winners (3 million won each), two Merit Award winners (2 million won each), two Encouragement Award winners (1 million won each), and twenty Honorable Mention winners (300,000 won each).

The Grand Prize this year was awarded to artist Kang Dayeon, born in 2005. Kang submitted a piece titled "Father's Love," which symbolically depicts an owl father warmly embracing his family, using acrylics and pen.

The artwork expresses the warmth and sacrifice of a father against the backdrop of a cactus house. In particular, the judges highly praised the unique depiction of cactus thorns protecting the family from the outside, achieved by applying thick-textured acrylic paint with a knife, rather than relying on conventional motifs or techniques. Kang shared the inner narrative of the work, stating, “The light of my father's love and sacrifice makes our family shine like a beautiful rainbow.”

The Excellence Awards went to Park Jaeyoung for "On My Thought Tree" and Pyo Geoyeon for "Symphonie Nr.7 A-dur." In addition, two Merit Award winners, two Encouragement Award winners, and twenty Honorable Mention winners were selected.

The 27 award-winning works will be open to the public free of charge at Gallery 6 of Insa Art Center until November 25.

A representative of JW Lee Jongho Foundation stated, “The JW Art Awards has discovered artists with disabilities who possess outstanding artistic sensibility and capability every year, and has provided a foundation for them to expand their presence in the Korean art scene with confidence. We plan to continue promoting and supporting talented artists more widely in the future.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.