Pioneering American Artist Wins Nam June Paik Prize
By ANNETTE MEIER
Portrait of JOAN JONAS. Photo by Toby Coulson. Courtesy Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin.
The Nam June Paik Art Center in Yongin, South Korea, has announced American visual artist Joan Jonas as the winner of its 8th Nam June Paik Prize for her formative work across sculpture, installation, performance, and video art.
A leading figure in the performance art movement of the late 1960s, Jonas became recognized for combining early digital technology—such as portable video cameras and TV monitors—with performance, exploring the recorded image of the human body as well as the polarities between nature and an increasingly digital society. She also represented the United States Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, and recently held a solo retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art earlier this year.
Established in 2009, the biennial Nam June Paik Prize (named after the eponymous Korean American video artist) honors artists who have contributed to the development of contemporary art through their cross-cultural practice. The award is funded by the Gyeonggi Provincial Government and hosted by the Nam June Paik Art Center, which is dedicated to promoting the namesake artist’s creative philosophy and work.
Jonas was selected by a five-person jury comprising Sungwon Kim, deputy director of the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul; Rein Wolfs, director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; Mami Kataoka, director of Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum; Frances Morris, a professor at Ewha Womans University and former director of London’s Tate Modern; and Namhee Park, director of Nam June Paik Art Center. In a press release, Park stated that Jonas’s work demonstrates “the power of art to promote understanding of difference and thought,” adding that she hopes the prize “will continue to encourage the rich interpretation and transmission of . . . Jonas’s art in the current moment.”
An official award ceremony will take place at the Nam June Paik Art Center on November 28, where Jonas will receive a KRW 50 million (USD 35,700) reward and a trophy. As the prize winner, she will subsequently hold an exhibition at the Center in November 2025, marking her first solo museum show in Korea.
Annette Meier is an editorial assistant at ArtAsiaPacific.
