We are pleased to share that Christine Sun Kim (2026 Resident in Design) has been named a 2026 MacArthur Fellow, in recognition of her pioneering creative practice that explores the cultural, political, and multi-sensory dimensions of sound, spoken language, and communication at large.
The twenty Fellows, announced on September 29, 2026, represent artists, scholars, and scientists who demonstrate exceptional creativity and a track record of accomplishment in their fields of scholarship and creative practice. Over the years, Fellows and Residents of the American Academy in Rome have been awarded 63 MacArthur Fellowships.
“At the American Academy in Rome we are very proud of our role as an incubator of fresh ideas and as a weathervane pointing to new and fruitful directions in the Arts & Humanities," said AAR President Peter N. Miller. "We salute Christine Sun Kim and welcome her to the large and growing community of AAR & MacArthur winners.”
Berlin-based artist Christine Sun Kim was the 2026 Henry Wolf Graphic Designer in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. Her work explores the politics of sound, language, and accessibility through drawings, performances, and time-based media.
Sun Kim was born deaf, and her practice investigates systems of communication, challenging dominant narratives of speaking and listening. She uses the graphic language of American Sign Language (ASL), as well as the dynamism of its movement and grammar, to convey complex ideas about a world that prioritizes sound and spoken communication.
"Christine Sun Kim is an advocate for so many people and so many selves at once, for the parts of us that get spoken over, and the parts that get left out of the room entirely, but most movingly, she is an advocate for herself and for her family," said AAR Director Aliza Wong. "She knows what she needs, and she asks for it, because it is her right, and because it is what is required for her to function as a human being who is an artist."
Her work has been exhibited at MoMA, Tate Modern, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Her first major museum survey, All Day All Night, was shown at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis from March 28 to August 30, 2026. It was co-organized by the Walker Art Center and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
In 2020, she delivered the American Sign Language rendition of the national anthem at the Super Bowl. Christine Sun Kim received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts and Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts.
Congratulations are also due to Maaza Mengiste, a novelist and professor in the Department of English at Wesleyan University, who served on the jury for the 2025 Rome Prize in Literature and was named a 2026 MacArthur Fellow. She is the author of the novels Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (2010) and The Shadow King (2019), which was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.
Last year, Garrett Bradley (2020 Fellow in Visual Arts) and Gala Porras-Kim (2026 Resident in Visual Arts) were awarded MacArthur Fellowships.