Five emerging artists have been selected as finalists for the Nissan Art Award 2020, to be held next year to celebrate and promote contemporary Japanese art.
The fourth edition of the award exhibition will take place in July 2020 in Yokohama, Nissan’s hometown. It will be held simultaneously with the Yokohama Triennale, a renowned international exhibition of contemporary art.
The five finalists will create new artwork for the exhibition, where Nissan will announce the grand prize (Grand Prix) winner. Chosen from 28 candidates at a selection round in Italy in May, they are:
- Ishu Han, Tokyo
- Sachiko Kazama, Tokyo
- Soichiro Mihara, Kyoto
- Nobuko Tsuchiya, Kanagawa
- Ei Wada, Tokyo
“We have a wonderfully diverse group of artists this year, representing a wide range of media – from performance to woodcut to physical sculptures,” said Lawrence Rinder, a member of the international jury for the award. “They are five extremely strong artists, and it will be very exciting to see what they produce.”
“The five selected artists are a snapshot of diversity of voice, certainly in terms of issues that artists are dealing with, not just in Japan but in the world.” said jury member Suhanya Raffel.
Nissan established the Nissan Art Award in 2013 as part of the company’s 80th anniversary celebration. Until the third edition, the award exhibition was held every two years.
The award recognizes emerging Japanese artists* in order to further their careers, enhance their presence in the international art world and create an environment that encourages people to familiarize themselves with art. It also aims to celebrate new developments in Japanese contemporary art and help provoke debate about visual art.
While Nissan organizes and sponsors the awards, Arts Initiative Tokyo directs and coordinates the program and curates the exhibition.
An international jury will select the Grand Prix winner, who will be announced during the exhibition. The winner will receive an award with a total value of 5 million yen, including the opportunity to practice at an artist residency overseas and disseminate their work internationally.
Visitors to the awards exhibition can vote to select a winner of the Audience Award.
*Starting with the 2020 edition of the awards, the definition of “Japanese artists” has been broadened to not only Japanese passport holders but also international passport holders who have been based in Japan for more than two years in total.
International jury members
- Fumio Nanjo, director, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (jury chair)
- Jean de Loisy, director, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris
- Ute Meta Bauer, founding director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore and professor at the Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design and Media, Singapore
- Suhanya Raffel, museum director, M+, Hong Kong
- Lawrence Rinder, director and chief curator, Berkeley Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California
Candidate Nomination Committee members
- Arata Hasegawa, independent curator
- Azusa Hashimoto, curator, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
- Minoru Hatanaka, chief curator, NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]
- Tomo Imai, curator, Arts Maebashi
- Yu Iseki, curator, Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito
- Eriko Kimura, curator, Yokohama Museum of Art/curatorial head, Yokohama Triennale 2020
- Roger McDonald, deputy director, Arts Initiative Tokyo [AIT]
- Hajime Nariai, curator, Tokyo Station Gallery
- Hiroko Tasaka, curator, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
- Kazuhiko Yoshizaki, curator, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
