October 21, 2025–September 21, 2026
The National Asian Culture Center (ACC) officially announces YoungEun Kim as the recipient of the ‘2026 ACC Future Prize,’ highlighting an emerging leader in Korean contemporary art.
YoungEun Kim, a distinguished sound, video, and installation artist, will showcase a comprehensive solo exhibition beginning August 2026 at the ACC Creation Space 1.
The Executive director of the National Asian Culture Center, Kim Sangug, affirms that the center will provide comprehensive support for the development of new works, with the aim of fostering international growth and expanding the scope of artistic discourse.
The National Asian Culture Center (ACC), an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and led by Executive director Kim Sangug, has officially announced YoungEun Kim as the recipient of the ‘2026 ACC Future Prize.’ On October 1st, the ACC announced the selected recipient of the ‘2026 ACC Future Prize’ following the final deliberation of the jury committee. This prize aims to identify a representative of Korea’s next-generation contemporary art. The selection process involved receiving recommendations for ten artists from domestic and international experts, narrowing down to five finalists in the first stage, and then evaluating their works to determine the final recipient.
Established by the ACC, the ‘ACC Future Prize’ is a strategic support initiative designed to nurture innovative and interdisciplinary artistic practices that envisage future societal values and potential. The program emphasizes the exploration of social transformations, such as those related to human, technological, and environmental changes, through the medium of art. It highlights the integration of media, technology, and artistic expression to facilitate experimental creation and production. Launched in 2023, the prize is awarded biennially and functions both as a support platform and as an exhibition program to showcase leading-edge artistic endeavors.
Through this initiative, the ACC endeavors to support artists who project future societal and cultural values of contemporary Asian art, reinforcing its position as a global platform for artistic creation and production. The inaugural recipient in 2023 was artist Ayoung Kim, whose exhibition titled Delivery Dancer’s Arc: Inverse was held from August 2024 to February 2025 at the ACC Creation Space 1. Kim’s works, employing game engine-based computer graphics and generative AI, received international acclaim and contributed to her participation in prominent exhibitions and Prizes globally.
The 2026 recipient, YoungEun Kim (b. 1980, Seoul), is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in sound, video, and installation art. She studied sculpture and media art at Hongik University and Korea National University of Arts, completed a sonology program at Royal Conservatory of The Hague and is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her ongoing research focuses on reinterpretations of listening and sound’s historical significance through experimental frameworks.
Kim’s artistic practice critically examines complex social and historical narratives—including modernization, militarism, and migration—through sound and auditory archives, revealing suppressed histories. Her work has been exhibited at major institutions domestically and internationally, earning prestigious accolades such as the Prix Ars Electronica and the SongEun Art Prize. She was also selected as a supported artist for ‘Korea Art Prize 2025,’ jointly presented by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) and SBS Culture Foundation.
The ACC will support the production of Kim’s new works, enabling her to organize a major solo exhibition from August 2026 to January 2027 at the 1,560㎡ ACC Creation Space 1. Additionally, the center will provide comprehensive supporting infrastructure—including production and media studios, digital media infrastructure, and a dedicated production team—to facilitate her creative endeavors.
The judging committee emphasized that “The ACC Future Prize functions as more than just an artist support program; it serves as a creative platform that bridges art, technology, humanity, and society,” and they assessed the projects based on their alignment with the Prize’s core philosophy. The panel highlighted Kim’s innovative approach: “She reconstructs speeches and writings produced in diaspora, migration, and border contexts through recitation and reading, transforming listening into a reflective act. Her project poses essential questions: ‘What have we failed to hear? And how should we ethically confront that which remains unheard?’ This initiative reinterprets colonization, history, and memory through sound art and aims to foster new meditative practices of listening in contemporary art.”
Kim Sangug, Executive director of the ACC, remarked: “YoungEun Kim ’s work awakens us to lost voices and unrecorded histories,” and further stated, “Her efforts to broaden the scope of contemporary Asian art and to contribute to future creative discourse are highly commendable. We are committed to fully supporting her production of new works, which will significantly advance her international growth and influence.”
About ACC Future Prize
What kind of future are we facing? The National Asian Culture Center launched the ACC Future Prize to honor creators of artistic languages that expand the innovative values and possibilities of the future. The ACC Future Prize delves into the prospects for future life, as suggested by transdisciplinary art practices that weave together human, environmental, and technological transformations, all through the lens of art, media, and technology. In an era where the boundaries between art and technology are continuously evolving and expanding, the notion of “futurity” prompts us to rethink the role of art, setting the stage for the emergence of new artistic possibilities. The ACC seeks to establish itself as a leading convergence Art platform in Asia by curating and showcasing works that fully utilize the area of Creation Space 1 (1,560㎡). These works embody a forward-looking artistic vision that integrates innovative digital culture and technology at scale. Held biennially since 2024, the ACC Future Prize is recognized as Asia’s foremost award for transdisciplinary art, accompanied by an exhibition program. The winner of the ACC Future Prize receives substantial support, including a production fee to realize a major exhibition at the ACC, along with opportunities for future international exhibitions. With this initiative, the National Asian Culture Center seeks to establish a unified art platform that transcends spatial and institutional limits, cultivating new futures for art.
About ACC
The National Asian Culture Center (ACC) is an international arts institution and cultural exchange organization that produces new, future-oriented results through the convergence of Asia’s past and present arts and culture with innovative ideas and beliefs. Having the context of artistically sublimating the significance of the May 18 Democratization Movement’s human rights and peace as its point of departure, the ACC, which opened in November 2015, is a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism–affiliated institution established for the advancement of mutual understanding and cooperative growth with different Asian countries through exchange, education, research, and other efforts with regard to Asian culture. The ACC plays the role of an integrated platform for participants from Asia and the rest of the world to freely unite and exchange their ideas while transcending boundaries in carrying out the steps of Research, Creation, and Production.
For more information and requests
National Asian Culture Center
38 Munhwajeondang-ro, Dong-gu, Gwangju 61485, Republic of Korea
ACC Future Prize in Charge of Exhibition Division Curator Hyemi Oh hyemioh@korea.kr
