Ayoung Kim's futuristic visions to come to MoMA PS1 in November

By Park Han-sol

Genre-pushing media artist Ayoung Kim is set to make her major U.S. solo debut this November at MoMA PS1 in New York.

Blending video, virtual reality, sonic fiction and text, Kim crafts futuristic and speculative iconographies to unravel a web of real-world themes — ranging from the fluidity of virtual data and capital to migration, biopolitics, nationhood and ancestral origins.

Curated by Ruba Katrib, chief curator of MoMA PS1, Kim’s New York presentation will run from Nov. 6 to March 16, 2026, in the museum’s third-floor gallery. Bringing together a curated selection of her most representative and recent projects, the show also marks the first time all three works from her ongoing “Delivery Dancer” series are exhibited together.

Inspired by the seismic shifts brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, “Delivery Dancer’s Sphere” (2022) delves into the gig economy, the hypervigilance of delivery workers, parallel universes and the relentless pressures to optimize body, time and space.

The piece earned the artist a distinction as the first Korean to win the prestigious Golden Nica from Prix Ars Electronica, the world’s longest-running award for interactive art, computer animation and digital music.

In the cinematic sequels “Delivery Dancer’s Arc: Inverse” (2024) and “Delivery Dancer’s Arc 0° Receiver” (2024), Kim brings back her two protagonists, Ernst Mo and En Storm, as they discover that their Seoul is merely a fragment of a futurist multiverse. As they navigate fractured realities, they probe the shifting dynamics between humans and technology in an era of ever-advancing artificial intelligence (AI).

To construct her series, the artist collaborated with an array of AI models, integrating generative AI, live-action footage, motion capture and gaming engine-based computer graphics to conjure an intricate urban labyrinth. The three-channel video installation confronts the hyperacceleration of invisible labor, offering a lens on the persistent demands of technology and capitalism seen through the eyes of delivery riders.

MoMA PS1, the venue for her upcoming exhibition, is a contemporary art affiliate of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), dedicated to championing boundary-pushing ideas and experimental practices, often in the form of large-scale installations. The museum previously hosted acclaimed artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle and Anne Imhof.

Before her New York debut, Kim will present “Many Worlds Over,” her inaugural museum solo show in Germany, at Hamburger Bahnhof - Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, running from Feb. 28 to July 20.