LG and the Guggenheim announce a five-year, multifaceted collaboration to research, honor and promote artists working at the intersection of art and technology. The LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative was introduced and celebrated on June 1, 2022, at the Guggenheim’s annual Young Collector’s Council (YCC) Party. Unique in its areas of concentration and approach, the initiative is an unprecedented investment in technology as an artistic medium, and will enable the Guggenheim to broaden its investigations into this innovative field.
The multi-year initiative will establish the LG Guggenheim Award, which will recognize one artist annually for their groundbreaking achievements in technology-based art. Administered by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the award will be juried by an international panel of distinguished museum directors, curators, scholars, and other arts professionals, with the selected artist receiving an unrestricted honorarium of $100,000. The first recipient of the LG Guggenheim Award will be announced at the YCC Party in spring 2023.
As part of the initiative, LG Display will sponsor the Guggenheim’s YCC Party through 2027. The YCC is a dynamic group of young professionals dedicated to supporting the museum’s landmark building, exhibitions, collection, and educational programs. The YCC Party is one of the largest, most glamorous events of the year and raises important funds for acquisitions of artwork. Through its sponsorship of the party, the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative will provide essential support of the museum’s mission to collect, preserve, and interpret the art of our time, expanding the YCC’s long-standing history of supporting emerging artists. This year, the YCC Party featured atmospheric club designs by artists Jacolby Satterwhite and Tourmaline and transparent OLED displays, with performanc.es by Perfume Genius and Maya Margarita, as well as DJ sets by TT Britt. Future parties will feature additional engagements by rising artists who will incorporate LG OLED technology into their activations of the Guggenheim’s landmark building.
The initiative will also be supported by the appointment of an LG Electronics Assistant Curator, who will take an active role in developing and supporting the Guggenheim’s engagement with digital and technology-based art, under the supervision of the museum’s senior curatorial staff. This newly-created, research-based position will promote a deeper understanding of the ways contemporary artists are engaging with computer-based hardware, the internet, augmented and virtual reality software, artificial intelligence, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the metaverse, and other burgeoning technologies. Not only managing the LG Guggenheim Award proce.ss, the LG Electronics Assistant Curator will work with the museum’s education, conservation, and communications departments to develop scholarship and other public-facing content that will support and enhance the initiative.
The LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative reflects the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s distinguished history of global collaborations, as manifested today in its international network of museums and programs. Through the sustained support of a long-term partnership with the Guggenheim, LG aims to help usher in a new wave of digital creativity, combining cutting-edge solutions from LG Electronics and LG Display with the unmatched artistic sensibilities of the Guggenheim.
Naomi Beckwith, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, comments, “We are especially proud to be partnering with LG on this initiative, which builds on the Guggenheim’s rich history of innovative, artist-driven programs. By promoting scholarship and public engagement, the LG Guggenheim initiative will provide essential support to the visionary artists who inspire new understanding of how technology shapes and is shaped by society.”
Seol Park, Head of Brand Management of LG Corp. comments, “We are thrilled to collaborate with the Guggenheim Museum to support creativity in the digital age. LG’s commitment to realizing technologies that touch people’s lives is very much in line with the Guggenheim’s dedication to highlight era-defining artistic expressions. We look forward to making available our exclusive innovations to the creative community and helping define the role of technology in this century as the enabling medium for human expressions and experienc.es.”
