"Delivery Dancer's Arc: Inverse" by Kim A-young / Courtesy of Kim A-young

Media artist Kim A-young has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 LG Guggenheim Award, LG and the Guggenheim Museum in New York announced Tuesday.

Kim is the third artist to be recognized through the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative, a five-year collaboration aimed at researching, honoring and promoting artists working at the intersection of art and technology.

Selected by an international jury of contemporary art leaders, she 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.

Kim A-young

“As technology advances, human life becomes more intricate. Artists can explore the possibilities technology may conceal and deploy it intuitively. Neither a techno-determinist nor a techno-pessimist, I have always wanted to comment on the impact of technology by using it. I thank LG and the Guggenheim Museum for their commitment to supporting artists who foster technological discourse,” Kim 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. I am honored and proud that Kim is recognized as a leading voice through this award,” said Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and Jennifer and David Stockman chief curator at the Guggenheim Museum.

Park Seol, LG Corp.'s head of brand, said, “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.”

Trained in motion graphics and lens-based media, Kim creates virtual environments using emerging technologies. Her work builds on cinematic tropes, combining live action, motion capture, animation software, game engines and image-generation technologies. She explores virtual reality and live simulation alongside traditional mediums like performance, sculpture and printmaking.

Kim transforms firsthand research into immersive speculative worlds. Her work ranges from historical research on ancient cosmologies to studies of algorithmically managed service workers and refugees. She advocates for artificial intelligence literacy and a deeper understanding of the boundary between humans and machines, reflecting her interest in quantum realities and multiple worlds. Her practice pushes the boundaries of art and technology, offering a vision of the future shaped by both.

Kim received the ACC Future Prize in 2024, the Golden Nica Award in 2023 and the British Institution Award in 2010. Her work is in the collections of Frac Lorraine in Metz, France; the Kadist Foundation; the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul; Tate in London and more. She has an upcoming solo show at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, opening Friday.

The jury included Mohamed Almusibli, Doryun Chong, Sabine Himmelsbach, Alfredo Jaar and Noam Segal. The LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative is a five-year collaboration aimed at researching and promoting artists working at the intersection of art and technology. Stephanie Dinkins and Shu Lea Cheang received the award in 2023 and 2024, respectively, with two more artists to be recognized through 2027.