Han Ishu and yang02 awarded Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2026-2028
Left: View of Han Ishu: MOT Annual 2021: A sea, a living room, and a skull, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2021. Photo: Morita Kenji. Right: yang02, Great Emptiness, 2024. Unstallation view, TERRADA ART AWARD 2023 Finalist Exhibition, Warehouse TERRADA G3-6F, Tokyo, 2024. Photo: Suzuki Yusuke.
TOKYO.—
Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) announced that Han Ishu and yang02 were selected as the winners for the sixth Tokyo Contemporary Art Award (TCAA).
The TCAA is a contemporary art award established by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and TOKAS in 2018 to encourage mid-career artists to make new breakthroughs in their work by providing them with several years of continuous support.
Following their activities overseas after receiving the award, the recipients will hold an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in the third year following the award. Through continued support over several years, including the publication of a monograph after the exhibition, TCAA aims to encourage the recipients to make even greater strides, including overseas development.
The winners were chosen by the International Selection Committee, consisting of: Joselina Cruz, Director and Curator, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila; Kondo Kenichi, Senior Curator, Mori Art Museum; Lesley Ma, Ming Chu Hsu and Daniel Xu Curator, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Nomura Shino, Senior Curator, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery; Takahashi Mizuki, Executive Director and Chief Curator, CHAT; Kondo Yuki, Program Director, Tokyo Arts and Space.
*Positions and titles current as of the time of the 2025 selection process.
Comments from the Chair of the Selection Committee
This year’s selection process was one in which each jury member was moved by the earnest and candid presentations and subsequent Q&A offered by the participating artists. Their works clearly revealed a sincere engagement with urgent questions such as where they come from, and how they will engage with society as artists through their respective concerns for technology, gender, modern Japanese history, and the voices of peripheralized individuals. On the other hand, their visual languages and the ideas and words underpinning their concepts lack strong originality, recalling works of the past, while they sometimes seem to simply borrow existing forms and styles. It is likely that the artists themselves are aware of this and are searching for a breakthrough. We hope that participating in this award becomes an opportunity for the artists to reflect on their artistic journeys thus far, step outside their comfort zones, and strive toward the next phase of their artistic development. —Takahashi Mizuki (Executive Director and Chief Curator, CHAT)
Reasons for the award
Han Ishu: Han’s practice is driven by an exceptionally strong sense of motivation originating from personal experience, and while poetic and essayistic in nature, references to history and contemporary art are visible in his work. The core of his subject matter is well grounded, and deep connections exist between motivation and theme, process and finished work, leading to a coherent body of work that clearly demonstrates the artist’s signature style. This is also a period in which Han is expanding his perspective on his own practice, and future projects that mediate between the self and others through diasporic experiences are expected to result in significant development in the artist’s career.
yang02: yang02’s work addresses questions about technology that everyone can relate to, and while it begins with motifs such as graffiti and robotic arms, it compellingly suggests elements that are not restricted to narratives of collapse in technological structures and systems, possessing a critical edge that humorously questions the violence inherent in technology. The wide range of variation in yang02’s works is driven by clear reasons and motivations, and the richness underlying his practice is expected to benefit from being presented in a more panoramic way through this award, providing a valuable opportunity for the artist to explore new directions and possibilities.
