New Show Explores the Past, Present and Future of Ryoji Ikeda

Summary

• The National Asian Culture Center in Gwangju is showcasing an eponymous solo exhibition by seminal Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda
• Now on view through December 28, the exhibition presents four new works alongside Ikeda’s data-verse trilogy in its entirety

As the National Asian Culture Center (ACC) in Gwangju, South Korea celebrates its 10th anniversary, it turns to Ryoji Ikeda, the seminal artist who helped defines its beginnings. His first return since the inaugural “test pattern [nº8],” the institution welcomes Ikeda back once again for a new solo exhibition, reflecting on a decade of artistic innovation and conceptual turns.

For Ikeda, data is less of a means of information, than an aesthetic material. The artist has spent over three decades pushing the boundaries of perception by transforming raw information into immersive experiences that question the nature of reality in the digital age.

The ongoing exhibition brings together seven pieces, including his seminal data-verse trilogy in its entirety. Alongside “dataverse 1/2/3” are four new works being shown for the first time — “data.flux (n˚2),” “critical mass,” “sleeping beauty” and “data.gram (n˚8)” — which highlight evolutions made within the artist’s practice and technology at large since his 2015 ACC presentation.

Urging audiences to consider humanity’s place in a world shaped by code, Ikeda channels beauty from algorithmic exhaust, offering a powerful meditation on what it means to see, hear and exist in the age of information overload.

ACC Focus 2025: Ryoji Ikeda is now on view through December 28.

National Asian Culture Center
38 Munhwajeondang-ro, Dong-gu,
Gwangju, South Korea