From Warehouse to the World: Five Emerging Artists Launch New Works at TERRADA ART AWARD 2025 Finalist Exhibition in Tennoz, Tokyo

Exhibition View of TERRADA ART AWARD 2025 Finalist Exhibition / Photo by Keizo KIOKU

As contemporary Japanese artists make their mark worldwide, attention is now focused on identifying the artists who will shape the next generation of the art scene. Warehouse TERRADA has been engaged in the art storage business since the 1970s and actively supports young artists making a mark on the global stage. The innovative creations of the five finalists, showcased in a renovated warehouse space, radiate artistic brilliance. Admission to this exhibition is free, attracting numerous art collectors and enthusiasts eager to stay ahead in discovering the “next” in the art world.

TERRADA ART AWARD is one of Asia’s most notable contemporary art awards and aims to support emerging artists. To discover artists who can play an active role on the world stage, we have conducted this award with the jury panel, with an international perspective and a deep understanding of contemporary art. For this edition, Daisuke Kuroda, Yuki Kobayashi, Sakura Koretsune, Yuske Taninaka, and Claire Fujita — these five were selected as the finalists from numerous entries from within Japan and overseas. They reframe bodies, histories, overlooked presences, and relationships with others and with nature, reimagining the very notion of “what an artwork can be” from diverse approaches in today’s society where multiple values intersect. Their practices also open up new perspectives that point toward the future.

Each finalist received 3,000,000 yen to fund the production of their works and the opportunity to exhibit within a warehouse space. Additionally, they are provided with forward-looking support, including professional artwork and digital data storage services, research grants, and art supplies. Also, the day before the exhibition, the final jury, Takahiro Kaneshima, Yukie Kamiya, Yuki Terase, Daito Manabe, and Meruro Washida, presented each jury’s award to the five finalists at the award ceremony.

Finalists (From left: Daisuke Kuroda, Yuki Kobayashi, Sakura Koretsune, Yuske Taninaka, and Claire Fujita) / Photo by Takanori Tsukiji

[About Five Finalists and their exhibits]

Daisuke Kuroda (Yuki Terase Award)

I focus on ghostly presences lingering in the city―forgotten or ignored―and create works that depict their forms through empathy and repulsion, based on various investigations. In recent years, I have been researching “sculpture”―a field I studied extensively and which formed the foundation of my artistic practice―and creating video works in which I portray sculptors. This time, I enact sculptors discussing their interpretations of Brancusi and his iconic work, “Bird in Space,” which served as a reference for many artists during the dawn of abstract expression in Japanese sculpture immediately after the war.

Artwork by Daisuke Kuroda, Photo by Keizo KIOKU

Born in 1982 in Kyoto. He completed the doctoral program (Sculpture) at Hiroshima City University Graduate School. 2019-2020 Agency for Cultural Affairs Overseas Study Program for Upcoming Artists. Focusing on forgotten, ghostly existences in society, he has recently been creating video works based on research on sculpture, using modern sculptors and their creative processes as motifs. Major exhibitions include “Between Memories and Objects” (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, 2025), “Practice for the Tent” (Enokojima Art, Culture and Creative Center, Osaka Prefecture [enoco], 2025), “The 7th Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2024—silent apple” (Changwon, Korea, 2024), among others.

Yuki Kobayashi (Meruro Washida Award)

This exhibition shares the current state of “The Wing Chun Project,” an interdisciplinary performance work originating from the Southern Chinese Martial Arts “Wing Chun.” Founded over 300 years ago by a female monk and martial artist from the Shaolin Temple, it was later popularized worldwide by the grandmaster “Yip Man,” and his disciples, who fled from Foshan to Hong Kong during the Sino-Japanese War after enduring the Chinese Civil War. Since 2019, through training, research, and exchanges in Hong Kong, China, and Japan, I have been trying to reinterpret the philosophy of the founder of Wing Chun Kung Fu and exploring the meaning of studying the history of war and colonial rule in East Asia, which is closely tied to its development, as well as the significance of learning combat and self-defense in modern society.

Artwork by Yuki Kobayashi, Photo by Keizo KIOKU

Born in 1990 in Tokyo. He received his MA from the Royal College of Art in 2016. In 2019, he founded the performance platform “Stilllive.” In 2023, he received the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) Individual Fellowship Visual Arts Grants Award. Recent activities include “CHAT 5th Anniversary – Factory of Tomorrow” (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, 2024), “The Watermill Center 2024 Artist-In-Residence” (New York), and the Arts Commission Yokohama (ACY) Artist Fellow in 2025.

Sakura Koretsune (Yukie Kamiya Award)

As I have explored whale-human relationships and visited various places, I have been given materials obtained from whales that were caught in past whaling activities. These materials were previously used to make a variety of tools but are no longer required. Stories can be recorded in writing or video and passed down as books or films. How can the materials and skills to use them be preserved? I seek a path to pass down stories and skills together by creating fictional toys.

Artwork by Sakura Koretsune, Photo by Isao Negishi

Born in 1986 in Hiroshima. She obtained a BFA from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2010. In 2017, she received her Master’s degree from Tohoku University of Art and Design in Yamagata. From 2022 to 2023, she stayed in Norway as a trainee under the Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists organized by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs. Whale-human relationships and the folklore of oceans inspire Koretsune’s works. Recent exhibitions include “VOCA 2022: The Visions of Contemporary Art” (Ueno Royal Museum), “currents / undercurrents: Bringing together the endless flow” (Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, 2024), and “Aichi Triennale 2025.”

Yuske Taninaka (Takahiro Kaneshima Award)

I question the norm to understand the body only within the frameworks of scientific verifiability or economic productivity. At the same time, I want to remain excited about the body’s potential. Can we seek the possibility of solidarity that arises from bodies that simply coexist—neither ensnared by meaning or rationality, nor valued only for productivity or function? Healing and care may offer such an entry point. They are not simply recovery in service of economic demands, but acts through which the body reassembles its agency within community. What matters is not ability, but opening ourselves toward the question of capacity: How might we exist together, and how might we come into relation with others?

Artwork by Yuske Taninaka, Photo by Keizo KIOKU

Born in 1988 in Osaka. He received his BA in Sculpture from Kyoto City University of Arts in 2012 and his MA in Solo/Dance/Authorship from HZT Berlin in 2021. He is an artist working across exhibitions and stage performances, exploring the vulnerability of bodies. His recent solo exhibitions include “Choose Grief” (Towada Art Center, 2024) and “Osaka Directory 8” (Osaka Nakanoshima Museum of Art, 2024). He has also presented major stage works such as “Air Crip” (Kyoto Art Center, 2023) and “Gallop” (CoFestival Ljubljana, 2022).

Claire Fujita (Daito Manabe Award)

In today’s world, speed and efficiency often take precedence over depth and presence. The slower moments when we genuinely connect with people, objects, and the world around us are quietly disappearing. As life accelerates, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand others or to nurture relationships with care.

Plants remind us quietly of another way of being. They do not speak, yet they respond sensitively to changes in light, temperature, and wind, continuously interacting with their surroundings.

By visualizing these subtle reactions, I hope to reawaken our sense of connection between people and between humans and nature. Within the rush of our convenient, accelerated lives, this work seeks to open a small space where we can once again notice the quiet joy of coexistence.

Artwork by Claire Fujita, Photo by Keizo KIOKU

Born in Beijing, China in 1991. She completed her MFA in Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts. Her practice combines kinetic structures with natural materials, exploring the tensions and conflicts that arise within social systems and personal relationships. Solo exhibitions include “Opaque Interrelations” (Shiseido Gallery, 2020). Selected group exhibitions include “SOUND & ART” (Arts Chiyoda 3331, 2021) and “Touch the Bottoms Contemporary Art in Seto” (Aichi, 2024).

[Exhibition Overview]

Title: TERRADA ART AWARD 2025 Finalist Exhibition

Dates: January 16th (Fri) – February 1st (Sun), 2026

* Open every day

Venue: Warehouse TERRADA G3-6F (2-6-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0002)

Open hours: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Last admission at 5:30 PM)

Entry fee: Free * No reservation required

URL: https://www.terradaartaward.com/en/finalist/

[TERRADA ART AWARD 2025 Overview] https://www.terradaartaward.com/en

Name: TERRADA ART AWARD 2025

Qualifying Activity: Contemporary Art (including all forms of media such as two-dimensional works like paintings; photography; three-dimensional works (objects); textiles; videos; digital media art; physical expression such as performances, etc.; and sound art or music, etc.)

Support Detail: An opportunity to display works at the Finalist Exhibition, and 3 million yen awarded as creation cost*

Supplementary Prize: Ruinart Blanc de Blancs, Research and report grant up to 300,000 yen for artist’s next creation following the AWARD, PIGMENT TOKYO products worth 100,000 yen, free use of Warehouse TERRADA’s art storage services for two years, and free use of Warehouse TERRADA’s digital storage service for three years

Held by: Warehouse TERRADA

Sponsor: Japan Airlines and Ruinart (MHD Moët Hennessy Diageo K.K.)

Support: Shinagawa City

Operation Support: Fujiwara Haneda LLC and Rocket Pencil K.K.

* Please refer to the Entry Guideline page on the Award’s official website for details regarding the support (prize) for the finalists.

[TERRADA ART AWARD 2025 Jury] (in Japanese alphabetical order)

Final Jury: Takahiro Kaneshima (Associate professor of SCAPe, Kanazawa College of Art), Yukie Kamiya (Head Curatorial Division, Chief Curator, The National Art Center, Tokyo), Yuki Terase (Art Intelligence Global Founder), Daito Manabe (Artist, programmer, and composer), and Meruro Washida (Director, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Associate professor of Tokyo University of the Arts)

Primary Selection Jury: Ryo Ikeshiro (Artist, musician, researcher, Associate Professor, School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong), Shinji Ohmaki (Artist), Eriko Kimura (Director at Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art), Ryutaro Takahashi (Psychiatrist, Art Collector), Yuu Takehisa (Artistic Director of Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito), and Reiko Tsubaki (Curator, the Mori Art Museum)

Jurys’ overall assessment: https://www.terradaartaward.com/en/finalist/

Jury’s profile: https://www.terradaartaward.com/en/member/

[About Warehouse TERRADA]

Established in 1950 and located in Tennoz, Tokyo, Warehouse TERRADA has developed dedicated storage services for highly specialized items such as artworks, wine, media, and confidential documents. In particular, the art storage service, first launched in 1975, has expanded into artwork restoration, transportation, exhibitions, and other related solutions, all available in one-stop. In 2014, we began operating a bonded warehouse for artworks. In 2022, we launched a new space that functions as a permanent gallery venue allowing for viewings, storage, and more under bonded conditions, aiming to further invigorate art distribution. We also operate art studios available for rent and host the TERRADA ART AWARD, supporting emerging artists. These initiatives earned us the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award in 2018. In recent years, Warehouse TERRADA has opened several facilities that promote art and culture, including the museum of contemporary art and architecture WHAT MUSEUM, art gallery cafe WHAT CAFE, art materials lab PIGMENT TOKYO and TERRADA ART COMPLEX, one of Japan’s largest gallery complexes. Through these broad-ranging art industry operations, and as a leading company in the Japanese art world, we provide services that contribute to revitalizing the art market and developing Tennoz into the world’s most exciting art capital.