Application period: February 10–March 9, 2026
Hyundai Artlab has announced the fourth year of the Artlab Editorial Fellowship Open Call for 2026.
Within our contemporary cultural landscape, it is imperative that critics value nuance and interpersonal understanding in equal measure with intellectual precision. Art writers today are compelled to attend to the range of human experiences, navigating the familiar and unfamiliar, idiosyncratic and interconnected, coherent and contradictory.
Established in 2022, Artlab Editorial, an initiative by Hyundai Artlab, has witnessed firsthand how platforms for critical art writing are essential to a thriving global art ecosystem. As part of our ambition to spark meaningful dialogue, cultivate empathy, and facilitate collaborations, Hyundai Artlab is looking to support two art writers whose texts on contemporary art exercise critical empathy. These writers should navigate the balance between care and critique, the interrogative and intuitive, the perceptive and imaginative, and engage through dialogue to deepen understanding.
This Fellowship is open to art writers from anywhere in the world and at any career stage. The two selected Fellows will each receive $10,000 to produce three pieces of writing every other month for Artlab Editorial in 2026 and will be paired with one of this year’s Fellowship Advisors, Mira Dayal, and Gary Zhexi Zhang, for regular one-on-one guidance and mentorship throughout the program.
The application is open now through March 9, 2026, 11:59pm EST. Apply here.
Eligibility requirements and FAQs can be found here.
Artlab Editorial
Artlab Editorial is a destination for critical engagement with contemporary art. With interviews, reviews, essays, and profiles, Artlab Editorial publishes writing that offers an opportunity to better understand the past, reconsider the contemporary, and envision the future. In its first four years, Artlab Editorial has published writers from around the world, including Rahel Aima, Karen Archey, Melissa Baksh, Shumon Basar, Julie Baumgardner, Allie Biswas, Hunter Braithwaite, Nancy Baker Cahill, Dawn Chan, Scarlet Cheng, Minji Chun, Samantha Culp, Joshua Paul Dale, Mira Dayal, Travis Diehl, Aindrea Emelife, Claire L. Evans, Mary Flanagan, Orit Gat, Amy George, Jennifer Higgie, Ayana Jamieson, Ladi’sasha Jones, Jeeyoung Lee, Charlotte Kent, Dean Kissick, Shannon Lee, Michelle Lhooq, Camila Marambio, Christina Catherine Martinez, Emily McDermott, Irini Mirena-Papadimitriou, Manuela Moscoso, Cassie Packard, Lee Pivnik, Syaura Qotrunadha, Rachael Rakes, Andrew Russeth, Kenny Schachter, Barry Schwabsky, Diana SeoHyung, Mindy Seu, Elizaveta Shneyderman, Monica Uszerowicz, Anuradha Vikram, Wendy Vogel, Claire Voon, Linda Yablonsky, Mika Yoshitake, LinYee Yuan, and Gary Zhexi Zhang, along with past Artlab Editorial Fellows, Olamiju Fajemisin, Laurie Rojas, Jiaying Sim, Skye Arundhati Thomas, Elvia Wilk, and Kira Xonorika.
To further support new voices and strengthen connections across boundaries, Hyundai Artlab launched the Artlab Editorial Fellowship in 2023, providing two art writers based anywhere in the world the opportunity to write about their cultural community.
Fellowship structure
The Fellowship is designed to produce a vibrant body of new art writing and foster global connections between writers, readers, and artists. With guidance from Artlab’s Editors and Advisors, Fellows will write three pieces of web-based editorial content for publication on Artlab Editorial.
Fellows will be committing to writing one 800-word article in English every other month, for publication on Artlab Editorial from May through December of 2026. They will be expected to develop each article over the course of eight weeks, meeting with their Advisor for in-depth development sessions, and working closely with Artlab Editorial’s Editor via monthly touch-bases.
Artlab Editorial Fellowship Advisors
To enrich the experience of the Fellows and strengthen Artlab’s community of writers, Fellows will be paired with one of this year’s Fellowship Advisors, Mira Dayal and Gary Zhexi Zhang, to receive regular mentorship, create article outlines, and get guidance on the production of their articles during the course of the program.
They will also work closely with Artlab Editorial’s Editor, Shannon Lee, via monthly check-ins for additional guidance and to ensure timely publication.
Mira Dayal is an artist, writer, editor, and educator based in New York. She is currently Senior Editor at Triple Canopy and recently co-edited Track Changes: A Handbook for Art Criticism, published by Paper Monument with support from Critical Minded. The book was informed by Dayal's prior work as Ideas Editor at Art in America, Associate Editor at Artforum, and Founding Editor of the Journal of Art Criticism, as well as her writing over the past decade for numerous magazines, exhibition catalogues, and other publications. As a freelance editor, Dayal has additionally worked with institutions, publications, and publishers including Fortunately Magazine, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Mousse Magazine, and Sternberg Press. Dayal also publishes the collaborative artist book series prompt: with Nicole Kaack. She is on the faculty at Barnard College and the School of Visual Arts, where she teaches courses on studio art and writing for artists. She holds a BA in Visual Arts – Economics from Barnard College and an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Gary Zhexi Zhang is an artist and writer based in London. His work explores systemic connections between cosmology, technology, and economy. He is a tutor at the Royal College of Art, where he teaches in the Contemporary Art Practice program. He edited Catastrophe Time! (Strange Attractor Press, 2023) and is currently working on a book under contract about multipolar technoculture. His writing on art, technology and economy has appeared in Frieze, ArtReview, Verge Journal of Global Asias, Serpentine Reader, Combinations, Are.na Annual, Journal of Cultural Economy, MIT Journal of Design and Science, amongst others. Books and chapters include “Against Reduction” (chapter, MIT Press, 2021), “Incomputable Earth” (chapter, Bloomsbury, forthcoming), Platforms: Around, In Between and Through (Singapore Biennale, 2023); Future Art Ecosystems III & IV (co-author; Serpentine, 2022 & 2024). He recently wrote catalogue essays for New Humans (New Museum), Forever Tomorrow (Auckland Art Gallery), Anicka Yi and Comrade Sun (HMKV). In 2025, he led a report for the British Council on art and technology in China.
Shannon Lee is a writer and editor based in New York. She is the current Editor of Artlab Editorial in addition to The Amp at Asian American Arts Alliance. Previously, she was an Associate Editor at Artsy and Editor and Senior Producer at Silica Mag.
About Hyundai Artlab
For over a decade, Hyundai Motor has deepened its partnerships with museums and cultural organizations worldwide, including Tate, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Hyundai Translocal Series is a new partnership initiative that roots itself in fostering dialogues and collaboration among art institutions in Korea and across the globe. Hyundai Motor’s own art initiatives include open call programs such as the VH AWARD, Hyundai Blue Prize+, and Artlab Editorial, a digital platform dedicated to art writing by transnational voices. These ongoing collaborations embrace the complexities of the cultural landscape by exploring new ideas and perspectives within and beyond the art ecosystem. The team steering these partnerships and initiatives is Hyundai Artlab. Our goal is to spark meaningful dialogue, cultivate empathy, and facilitate collaborations that connect across boundaries.
