Ayoung Kim, a Seoul-based media artist, has won the 2025 LG Guggenheim Award. The award is part of a five-year collaboration between the Guggenheim Museum in New York and LG, a Korean electronics company. The award aims to explore the intersection of art and technology.
Kim is known for her innovative use of technology in art. She often uses generative AI, video game engines, motion capture, animation software, and live-action footage. Her unique style combines traditional mythologies and cosmologies with modern Webtoon aesthetics.
She explores the rapid acceleration of technology and its role in society. One of Kim’s notable works is the “Delivery Dancer” trilogy. It delves into the lives of female delivery riders and how their profession has evolved since the pandemic.
Kim stated, “As technology advances, human life inevitably becomes more intricate.
Kim’s intersection of art and tech
What artists can do with technology is explore the uncertain possibilities it may conceal and deploy it in the most intuitive way.”
Kim has participated in prestigious exhibitions such as the 2023 Sharjah Biennale, the 2018 Gwangju Biennale, and the 2015 Venice Biennale.
She has also had solo shows at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. Currently, she is featured in the “MACHINE LOVE: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art” exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Later this year, her work will be showcased in the Tate Modern’s “A Year in Art: 2050” group exhibition, and she will have a solo show at MoMA PS1 in New York.
Kim was selected by a distinguished five-person jury, including artists and curators Alfredo Jaar, Mohamed Almusibli, Doryun Chong, Noam Segal, and Sabine Himmelsbach. The jury praised Kim’s work for representing a paradigm shift in how art can engage with emerging technologies. Kim will receive an unrestricted honorarium of $100,000 in recognition of her contributions.
She will be celebrated on May 8 at the 2025 Young Collectors Council Party, sponsored by LG Display. Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and chief curator at the Guggenheim Museum, said, “At its core, Kim A-young’s work invites viewers to engage with deep questions about time and the human experience in an accelerating digital age. By revealing the convergence of machines and humanity, her work illuminates the pressing challenges of our era.”
Park Seol, LG Corp.’s head of brand, added, “Kim A-young’s work, in which technology is both subject matter and medium, resonates with LG’s engagement with technology.
LG congratulates Kim A-young on this well-deserved recognition and looks forward to witnessing her continued use of cutting-edge technologies to expand the scope of contemporary art.”