Han Ishu and yang02 Win Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2026

Tokyo Follow +

Han Ishu and yang02 have been named winners of the sixth Tokyo Contemporary Art Award (TCAA), each netting a ¥3 million (just over £14,000) cash prize and up to ¥2 million (around £9,000) to fund overseas research and travel. 

Established in 2018 by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS), the prize supports mid-career artists active in Japan, providing them with resources to further their reputations on the international stage. The awardees will also mount a joint exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2027, after which a monograph will be published.

Takahashi Mizuki, executive director and chief curator of the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile and chair of TCAA’s selection committee, said: “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 peripheralised individuals.”

Although Tokyo-based, Han Ishu is a rare recipient of the TCAA in that he was born outside Japan, in Shanghai. His practice—spanning video, installation, photography and painting—often utilises his own body and mundane objects to navigate the friction between individuals and social structures.

The selection committee noted that Han’s work is driven by a “strong sense of motivation originating from personal experience”, with his diasporic perspective serving as a bridge between the self and others.

Kanagawa-based artist yang02, who describes himself as an artist of “post post-humanism”, designs installations where human-centred actions, including creating and viewing, are replaced by machines.

His project, TEFCO (Tokyo Electricity Farming Community) (2023) involves self-built gravity-powered generators that allow visitors to charge their smartphones. By transforming the exhibition space into a “power station”, yang02 humorously questions the violence inherent in technology and the invisible systems governing modern convenience.

Reflecting on his win via Instagram, yang02 wrote: “Since around 2021, I had half-jokingly described myself... as ‘fresh mid-career artist’—and now it seems that self-deprecating label may have actually become true.”

This self-awareness mirrors the selection committee’s rigorous evaluation of the mid-career landscape. Takahashi offered a candid assessment of the current cohort, noting that while their engagement with social questions is “earnest”, their visual languages sometimes “lack strong originality”.

She suggested that these artists are likely searching for a breakthrough, and the TCAA represents a timely opportunity for them to “step outside their comfort zones”.