WINNERS

Earned his PhD in Film and New Media Studies from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2025.

• 2025 “Prolonged Emergencies,” The National Museum of Art, Osaka
• 2025 “Asia Avant-Grade film festival 2025,” M+ Museum, Hong Kong
• 2025 Solo exhibition“Art must be beautiful,” Aomori Museum of Art
• 2024 “The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art,” Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
• 2023 “Home Sweet Home,” The National Museum of Art, Osaka
• 2022 “Roppongi Crossing 2022: Coming & Going,” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
• 2022 “Aichi Triennale 2022：Still Alive,” Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art
• 2020 Solo exhibition “ART LEAP 2019 ‘YOUR KINDNESS’,” Kobe Art Vilage Center, Hyogo
• 2017 “TWS Shibuya Closing Event,” Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya
• 2017 “Shibuyajizai － Infinity, or Self-Territory,” Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya
• 2015 “In the Wake Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11,” Museum of Fine Arts Boston

• 2025 “The 36th Takashimaya Art Award,”
• 2020 “Nissan Art Award 2020,” Grand prize

Through his own perspective, Han addresses questions regarding the complex relationship between individuals and society and the confusion caused by such relations. His performancebased videos and installations, grounded in his own body as a point of departure, make visible the norms, systems, and structures of the gaze embedded in everyday society, at times inflected with subtle humor.

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.

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.