Yalan Xu is the winner of the 2023 ARS IN FABULA Grant awarded each year to a young illustrator under the age of 30, selected for the Illustrators Exhibition of the Bologna Children's Book Fair.
Born in 1995, Yalan Xu is a Chinese illustrator living and working in China.
Between 2016 and 2019, she trained abroad in the United Kingdom, attending the Theatre Design course at Wimbledon College of Arts, of UAL: University of The Arts London.
In 2023, his artworks were selected for the Bologna Children's Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition.
The Jury’s motivation:
"The 2023 Ars in Fabula Grant Award has been assigned to Yulan Xu for the narrative quality of her expressive, ironic, fun-loving illustrations, rendered with just a few succinct strokes. This, together with colour combinations that reach beyond the confines of our natural world, make for a stylistic register which, in our view, will be appreciated by the international publishing industry."
The winner chosen by a jury made up of the course lecturers, is given a free place on the ARS IN FABULA - Master Degree Course in Illustration for Publishing, during which the selected artist will work on a book project assigned by one of the course publishing partners.
The initiative, promoted by ARS IN FABULA, a higher education institute directly involved in the field of high education and promotion of children's books in collaboration with Bologna Children's Book Fair, aims to sustain and train new talent through a postgraduate illustration course.