Trevor Paglen Selected as the 2026 LG Guggenheim Award Recipient

• Trevor Paglen's work brings visibility to digitally invisible structures, drawing on sustained engagements with AI, computer vision, digital infrastructures, and expanded landscapes.
• The award is part of the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative, a five-year, multifaceted collaboration designed to research, honor, and promote artists working at the intersection of art and technology.

SEOUL, South Korea, March 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- LG and Guggenheim New York proudly announce Trevor Paglen as the 2026 LG Guggenheim Award recipient. Paglen is the fourth artist to be recognized as part of the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative, a five-year, multifaceted collaboration designed to research, honor, and promote artists working at the intersection of art and technology. Selected by an international jury of leaders in contemporary art, Paglen will receive an unrestricted honorarium of $100,000 in celebration of his groundbreaking contributions to this field.

Paglen will deliver the lecture-performance "The Lizard People Are Here!" at Guggenheim New York on May 18. Please visit guggenheim.org/calendar/ for more information.

"Over the course of his career, Paglen has undertaken foundational investigations into the infrastructures of surveillance, artificial intelligence, data extraction, and state secrecy that shape contemporary life. By transforming opaque technological systems into perceptible forms, he cultivates public awareness and civic agency. His art invites us to confront the invisible architectures that govern our lives and to recognize our shared responsibility within them. In illuminating these often unseen forces, Paglen empowers audiences not only to see the world differently but also to imagine how it might be shaped differently," said Naomi Beckwith, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator at Guggenheim New York.

"We're living through a profound transformation in our relationship to images. Images, sensing systems, algorithms, and the infrastructures around them have become active participants in the world––shaping decisions, identities, cultures, and histories. As an artist, I'm interested in exploring new forms of vision and imagining alternative ways of seeing. I'm honored to receive this award from LG and the Guggenheim, and grateful for their commitment to artists working at the intersection of art, science, and technology," said Paglen, 2026 LG Guggenheim Award recipient.

"We are honored to present the 2026 LG Guggenheim Award to Trevor Paglen, an artist whose work reflects the very questions we ask ourselves at LG. As we advance our AI capabilities, we recognize that true innovation demands transparency, accountability, and a commitment to the human-centered application of technology. By celebrating Trevor's vision, LG reaffirms its dedication to building an AI future that is not only powerful but ethically grounded and deserving of human trust," said Seol Park, Head of Brand at LG Corp.

Trevor Paglen (b. 1974, Camp Springs, Maryland; lives and works in New York) is an artist whose work brings visibility to digitally invisible structures, helping audiences better understand current technologies and their underlying logic. Drawing on sustained engagements with landscape renderings, advanced technologies, and the history of photography, he reveals how power, secrecy, and surveillance influence what we see––and what remains unseen––within digital systems.

Paglen's work examines the formation and construction of digital images, investigating the evolving machinic apparatus of digitally constructed images. Through these inquiries, Paglen examines how these forms shape our understanding of reality. His practice spans photography, simulation, remote sensing, sculpture, writing, research, and engineering, all aimed at uncovering systems that often operate out of sight.

Paglen has presented solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2019); Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (2018); Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (2015); Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing (2015); Protocinema, Istanbul (2013); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands (2013); and the Vienna Secession (2010). His work has also been included in group exhibitions at leading museums such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2009, 2010, and 2018); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2014); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2011); and Tate Modern, London (2010), among many others.

In recognition of his work, Paglen received the MacArthur Fellowship in 2017 and the Electronic Frontier Foundation Award in 2014, honoring him as a groundbreaking investigative artist. His work is in the collections of the Guggenheim; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Cleveland Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Art; FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkirk, France; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Mudam Luxembourg, Luxembourg City; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Pérez Art Museum Miami; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and more.

His upcoming book How to See Like a Machine will be released by Verso on May 19, 2026.

The jury for the 2026 LG Guggenheim Award included Mami Kataoka, Director, Mori Art Museum; Melanie Lenz, Curator of Digital Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Rasha Salti, researcher, writer, and curator of art and film, and curatorial advisor to late Koyo Kouoh, Artistic Director of the 61st Venice Biennale; Noam Segal, Ph.D., LG Electronics Associate Curator, Guggenheim New York; and Eugenio Viola, Ph.D., Artistic Director, Bogotá Museum of Modern Art.

On selecting Paglen for the 2026 LG Guggenheim Award, the jury stated:

"Trevor Paglen's long-term, pioneering practice has persistently evolved throughout his career, demonstrating an exceptional commitment to innovation, critical reflection, and conceptual complexity. Over previous decades, his work has explored the liminal space of digital photography, interrogating the structures of seeing through questions of visibility, perception, and lens-based technologies. With the emergence of large language models and contemporary AI systems, Paglen's practice has expanded to engage deeply with advanced data analytics, computer vision, and the underlying architectures that shape our modes of perception.

Looking beyond art and culture alone, Paglen examines the power structures surrounding mass technologies and the exchanges they facilitate––between cultural myths, national narratives, and deeply embedded social assumptions. His engagement with advanced technologies extends beyond discrete forms of artificial intelligence, probing instead the future implications and latent potentials of neural and computational systems. Through this work, Paglen carefully interrogates the forces that 'produce our reality,' simultaneously challenging the limits of human perception while rendering invisible structures visible.

Paglen's sustained commitment to addressing urgent global concerns––through rigorous artistic research, technological subversion, intellectual risk-taking, and engagement with universal subject matter—has resulted in a coherent and highly distinctive artistic oeuvre. His works consistently bring legibility and public access to opaque and often inaccessible technologies, while resisting dominant corporate narratives and foregrounding broader societal and ethical considerations. This unwavering devotion to critical inquiry and public accountability merits recognition and support. We recognize Trevor Paglen as one of the most influential artists of our time."

About the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative
Since launching in 2022, the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative has championed artists across a range of media, backgrounds, geographies, and career stages as part of a five-year collaboration between the Guggenheim and LG to research, honor, and promote artists working at the intersection of art and technology. Unique in its focus and approach, the initiative represents an unprecedented investment in technology as an artistic medium. It enables the Guggenheim to broaden its investigations into this innovative field, providing essential support to the visionary artists whose work explores how technology shapes––and is shaped by––society.

As part of the initiative, Noam Segal joined Guggenheim New York in 2023 as LG Electronics Associate Curator. Focusing on research, Segal plays an active role in developing the museum's engagement with technology-based art, producing scholarship and public-facing programs and content across the museum through 2027.

The 2026 LG Guggenheim Award recipient Trevor Paglen will be recognized at the Young Collectors Council (YCC) Party on May 14.

As part of the initiative, LG Electronics is the Presenting Sponsor of the Guggenheim's YCC Party through 2027. This event raises vital funds for the acquisition of artwork. Through its sponsorship of the party, the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative helps sustain the museum's mission to collect, preserve, and interpret the art of our time while expanding the YCC's long-standing commitment to emerging artists. Each year, the YCC Party features activations and performances devised by rising stars of the art world. Since 2023, participating artists have incorporated LG's groundbreaking OLED technology into their engagements with the Guggenheim's landmark building. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/initiatives/lg-guggenheim-art-and-technology-initiative/lg-and-the-ycc-party.

Past recipients of the LG Guggenheim Award are Stephanie Dinkins, Shu Lea Cheang, and Ayoung Kim. The initiative will recognize one additional artist in 2027.

About LG
LG is a technology innovator and global leader in consumer electronics, advanced materials, and automotive components. Founded in 1947, LG was a driving force behind South Korea's modernization. The company produced South Korea's first radio and television sets and today is a global leader in organic light-emitting displays (OLED), electric car batteries, and advanced industrial plastics. The LG group of companies operates in more than 60 countries that together generate USD 140 billion in annual revenue. LG Corporation (LG Corp.) is the holding company for industry-leading LG subsidiaries, such as LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Energy Solution, LG Chem, to name a few. For more information about the LG group of companies, visit lgcorp.com.

About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was established in 1937 and is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The international constellation of museums includes the Guggenheim New York; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; the Guggenheim Bilbao; and the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. A "temple of spirit" where radical art and architecture meet, the Guggenheim New York is among a group of eight Frank Lloyd Wright structures in the United States designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. To learn more about the Guggenheim New York and the Guggenheim's activities around the world, visit guggenheim.org.

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For additional information:

LG PR Team 
LG Corp. 
+82 2 3773 2171 
[email protected]
https://lgartssponsorship.lg.co.kr/en/

Guggenheim Press Office 
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