American artist wins 1st LG Guggenheim Award

LG Group said Sunday that it awarded the first LG Guggenheim Award to Brooklyn-based artist Stephanie Dinkins, at a ceremony held in New York, Friday.

The LG Guggenheim Award is an extension of the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology initiative, a five-year joint project from the Guggenheim and LG to honor, research and promote artists combining technology and art in their works.

Dinkins, an art professor at Stony Brooks University, has emphasized the importance of fairness and equality in the digital era with her work using cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality.

Her representative work "Conversations With Bina48," an AI robot inspired by a Black woman named Bina Rothblatt, delivers a message that diversity factors -- race, gender, disability and cultural background -- should be considered in the information that AI acquires.

"I am grateful to LG and the Guggenheim for their support of artists who are using technology to foster positive change,” Dinkins said.

“I believe that art has the power to inspire and provoke, and I am committed to using my work to raise awareness of important issues and to promote social justice,” She added.

The winner received a $100,000 honorarium, accompanied by a physical award that represents the potential for technology to inspire new and unexpected art forms.

As part of the LG Guggenheim Global Partnership signed last year, LG Electronics and LG Display will also support the Guggenheim Museum and LG Group for the next five years.

LG Electronics plans to sponsor LG Electronics Association Curators to support digital technology-based art research at the Guggenheim Museum, while LG Display will sponsor the Young Collectors Council party held annually in New York.