Korean artist Ayoung Kim has been announced as the 2025 LG Guggenheim Award recipient. She becomes the third artist to receive an unrestricted honorarium of $100,000 as part of the five-year collaboration between the Guggenheim New York and LG, which celebrates artists working at the intersection of art and technology.
Kim uses emerging technologies in her work to build on classical cinematic tropes, combining live action, motion capture and animation software, game engines, and image-generation technologies. She explores virtual reality and live simulation alongside more traditional mediums like performance, sculpture, and printmaking. The artist is profiled in the upcoming issue of ArtReview Asia.
‘As technology advances, human life inevitably becomes more intricate. What artists can do with technology is explore the uncertain possibilities it may conceal and deploy it in the most intuitive way. Neither a techno-determinist nor a techno-pessimist, I have always wanted to comment on the impact of technology in our society by using it,’ Ayoung Kim stated upon receiving the award.
This year’s jury was comprised of Mohamed Almusibli, Director and Chief Curator, Kunsthalle Basel; Doryun Chong, Artistic Director and Chief Curator, M+, Hong Kong; Sabine Himmelsbach, Director, HEK (House of Electronic Arts), Basel; Alfredo Jaar, artist, architect, and filmmaker; and Noam Segal, LG Electronics Associate Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
‘Kim’s exploration of the human condition in her works transcends conventional representations, portraying humanity as an evolving intersection of physicality and data under algorithmic governance,’ the jury stated. ‘Her approach raises essential questions about the ethical and emotional implications of living in a technology-driven world, offering audiences opportunities for both reflection and discovery.’
