Coco Klockner Named ARTnews 2026 Emerging Artist of the Year

The artist Coco Klockner has been named the 2026 Emerging Artist of the Year by ARTnews, the New York art magazine. The award was announced in an article published on November 14, 2026, and it points to two shows in New York this year and last.

The first was "In Practice: Coco Klockner" at SculptureCenter, a New York museum. It ran from October 18 to December 22, 2025, and centred on an installation called null dialogue. An installation is an artwork built for a particular space, and this one was made from subwoofers, the large speakers that produce deep bass sound, along with construction fill, the crushed stone and rubble used to build up ground, and an amplifier to drive the sound.

The second was Klockner's contribution to "Greater New York 2026" at MoMA PS1, the contemporary art branch of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. That group show ran from April 16 to August 17, 2026. ARTnews cited Klockner's installation Glottoplasty from that show.

Glottoplasty uses plastic storage drawers with speakers built into them. The speakers play excerpts from trans oral archives, which are collections of recorded spoken histories from trans people. Visitors hear the voices as they move through the room, and the drawers themselves become the source of the sound.

Taken together, the two works both rely on sound coming from ordinary materials. A subwoofer and a plastic drawer are not usually considered art supplies, and in Klockner's installations they carry the voices and vibrations that make up the work.

For readers who follow museums, the award is an annual pick by ARTnews, which names one artist each year. For everyone else, it is a clear marker of a name to watch in the coming months, as more exhibitions are announced.