Trevor Paglen Selected as the 2026 LG Guggenheim Award Recipient

Paglen will deliver the lecture-performance "The Lizard People Are Here!" at Guggenheim New York on May 18. Please visit (opens in a new window) 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 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 Sosa, 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; Massachusems 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.

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.”

(opens in a new window) To learn more, visit guggenheim.org.