It was announced today (March 5) that Shu Lea Cheang, an early pioneer in the field of digital art, is the second recipient of the LG Guggenheim Fellowship. Selected by an international jury of experts in art, culture and technology, she will receive an unrestricted honorarium of US$100,000.
The award is presented by the LG Guggenheim Art & Technology Initiative, a five-year partnership established in 2022 between New York’s Guggenheim Museum and South Korea’s LG Corporation to promote artists working at the intersection of art and technology . “Shu Lea Cheang was one of the first to recognize the liberating potential of the digital realm,” Naomi Beckwith, chief curator and associate director of the Guggenheim Museum, said in a statement. “We celebrate her bold exploration of bodies and their desires in digital and analog worlds and are delighted to join LG in recognizing her essential work.”
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Cheng, 69, is a Taiwanese, American and French artist whose work has incorporated numerous new technologies since the 1990s.She produced and directed four feature films—1994’s fresh kill, 2000s Aiku, 2017 fluid island and 2023 Yogi—Her art is included in the collections of the Whitney, the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Center Pompidou, among others.
Shu Lea Cheang: Pioneer of the Internet and Digital Art
Zheng has long been at the forefront of exploring the impact of technological change on society.Her 1998 work BrandonFor example, it made history as the first work of internet art commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum. The work explores the legacy of trans man Brandon Teena, who was murdered in 1993 and restored in 2017 by a team of computer preservationists at the Guggenheim.
Decades later, Zheng’s contributions to digital culture remain relevant. Represented Taiwan at the Venice Biennale in 2019 3x3x6, a mixed media installation whose title alludes to industrial incarceration (the title refers to a 3×3 square meter cell monitored by six cameras). It focuses on surveillance in the digital age, citing ten separate cases of incarceration incited by gender, sexual orientation and racial nonconformity.
The artist’s work also includes experiments with technological themes ranging from alternative currencies to motion sensors.Recent works, such as those from 2017 Mycelium Network Association investigates the nature of biotechnology while her 2023 installation say Focus on the social impact of machine learning.
LG Guggenheim Prize jury members praised Cheang’s “fascinating overview of advanced technology” in a jury statement. The jury includes Eungie Joo, director of contemporary art at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Koyo Kouoh, executive director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art; Noam Segal, deputy director of LG Electronics at the Guggenheim; Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, contemporary art at Castello di Rivoli Museum Director; and Stephanie Dinkins, winner of the inaugural LG Guggenheim Fellowship.
Cheang will discuss her practice and future works at a public program on May 2 at the Guggenheim Theatre. “The LG Guggenheim Prize revives the electronics industry’s proud tradition of supporting art and technology,” she said in a statement. “Being recognized by a diverse jury membership gives me tremendous confidence to continue and expand my artistic practice.”
