On May 9, 2013, at a ceremony in Beijing’s 798 Art District, the Second Audi Art and Design Awards presented Shen Wei with the 2012 Artist of the Year Award.

Founded in 2010, the Audi Arts and Design Award is China’s first major cross-discipline award focusing on Chinese contemporary art and design, with the motto, “Inherit, Innovate, Lead.” Bringing together visual art, design, and performance, the Award aims to encourage Chinese creativity and promote Chinese contemporary art and culture both in China and internationally. The Award Board selected 30 artists for consideration in the Artist of the Year category and a professional jury of over 100 arts professionals—artists, gallery directors and agents— narrowed the field to five artists for further consideration.

The winning artist was determined by a combination of the Professional Arts Jury (50% of the vote); a Media Jury (30 % of the vote) and public, online voting (20 % of the vote). More than 50,000 people voted on line to help determine the award winner. Shen Wei, made a mad dash from Amsterdam, where he is choreographing a work on the Dutch National Ballet, to make it to Beijing for the award ceremony, where he not only accepted the honor, but performed a special solo as well. The ceremony was viewed by more than 300,000 individuals online. ‘)}