Inside the Guggenheim’s Starry Young Collectors Council Party

The annual uptown fête honored Korean artist Ayoung Kim, who received the 2025 LG Guggenheim Award for her digital dreamscapes

May 12, 2025

On the evening of Thursday, May 8, New York’s creative cognoscenti headed uptown to attend the 2025 Guggenheim Young Collectors Council Party to mix and mingle under the iconic rotunda and celebrate Korean artist Ayoung Kim, the winner of the 2025 LG Guggenheim Award. Now in its third year, the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative supports artists working at the intersection of art and technology.

The evening commenced with an intimate seated dinner in the museum’s Wright Restaurant for the YCC co-chairs, event co-chairs, host committee members, presenting sponsor LG Display, artists, and other esteemed guests. Throughout the night, the museum welcomed hundreds of international attendees, who sipped on cocktails, danced to a DJ set by Kito, and explored the Guggenheim’s current rotunda exhibition “Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers.”

Seol Park, Ayoung Kim, and Naomi Beckwith. Photo: BFA

Guests also participated in a multisensory experience by LaJuné McMillian. Renowned for pushing boundaries with motion capture and gaming engines, the 2025 YCC Artist Collaborator created an immersive environment inspired by the idea of a lavender dream. This included a performance that descended the Guggenheim spiral and culminated on the rotunda stage featuring dancers, vocalists, and instrumentalists that used motion capture technology to broadcast the performers’ digital avatars on LG screens.

The museum’s deputy director Naomi Beckwith, LG Electronics North America president and CEO Chris Jung, and LG head of brand management Seol Park also raised a glass to Kim in celebration of her receiving the 2025 LG Guggenheim Award. Trained in motion graphics, Ayoung creates fantastical virtual environments using technologies such as virtual reality, generative AI, video game engines, and live simulation to examine our fraught relationship with data and the environment. Ayoung was selected by an international jury and is the first Korean artist to win the award; she’ll receive the prize and present a public program at the Guggenheim on July 1. This fall, the artist will also unveil a suite of video installations at MoMA PS1.

Alyssa Yoon, Tiffany Zabludowicz, Sophia Cohen, and Hannah Gottlieb-Graham. Photo: BFA.

Diana Sinclair. Photo: BFA

Funds raised from the evening will benefit the Guggenheim New York and the Young Collectors Council Art Fund, which supports contemporary artists as well as the museum’s permanent collection, exhibitions, and educational initiatives. The Young Collectors Council is a group of young professionals who seek to further their understanding of contemporary art through curator-led programs, artist interactions, private collection visits, and more.

Notables in attendance included Tschabalala Self, Moses Sumney, Ella Emhoff, Gabriel Florenz, Ilana Savdie, Rachel Rossin, Liz Magic Laser, Cecily Waud, Mariët Westermann, Wendy Fisher, and more.

See more highlights from the star-studded evening below: