The jury prizes for the five finalists of TERRADA ART AWARD 2025, a contemporary art award organized by Warehouse TERRADA, have been announced following final deliberations by five jury members. The award-winning artists are presenting their work, including newly produced pieces, at the TERRADA ART AWARD 2025 Finalist Exhibition, held at Warehouse TERRADA G3-6F from January 16 through February 1, 2026.

photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE

TERRADA ART AWARD is dedicated to contemporary art in all its forms, encompassing painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, video, digital media art, performance, sound, and other modes of expression. In addition to the opportunity to exhibit, finalists receive production support as well as multiple forms of assistance provided by Warehouse TERRADA and its partner organizations.

Since the 1970s, Warehouse TERRADA has developed its art storage business while gradually expanding the role of warehouse space from preservation to production and exhibition. Based in Tennoz, the company has fostered an environment in which artists can sustain long-term creative practices. TERRADA ART AWARD stands as an extension of these initiatives, positioning the warehouse as a site where emerging forms of expression are not only conceived, but realized.

photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE

Exhibition Plans and Jury Perspectives
At the core of the exhibition are works developed from the finalists’ original exhibition proposals, now implemented within the Warehouse TERRADA space itself. Across painting, sculpture, sound, installation, video, and performance, diverse media coexist to articulate urgent questions of the present moment.

■ Yuki Terase Prize — Daisuke Kuroda
Daisuke Kuroda focuses on “forgotten” or “overlooked” presences embedded within urban environments. Through meticulous research and fieldwork, he revives subjects on the verge of historical obscurity, drawing viewers in not through academic knowledge but through narrative. The jury highlighted his distinctive storytelling approach, which blends verified historical facts with a subtly comic tone, while raising fundamental questions about what ultimately remains as historical truth.

Helmet Head Bird Chair by Daisuke Kuroda（2025）
photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE
For this exhibition, Kuroda presents a series that includes a video work in which sculptors stage a discussion around Bird in Space, Constantin Brancusi’s iconic sculpture that influenced Japan’s postwar shift toward abstract sculpture. How Kuroda’s recurring question — “What is sculpture?” — unfolds within the Warehouse TERRADA space is a central point of interest.

Sculptor's Table by Daisuke Kuroda (2025)
photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE

■Meruro Washida Prize — Yuki Kobayashi
Yuki Kobayashi develops The Wing Chun Project, an interdisciplinary performance work rooted in Wing Chun, a southern Chinese martial art. Since 2019, Kobayashi has pursued training and research across Hong Kong, mainland China, and Japan, reexamining martial arts through a queer lens and reframing them as practices of bodily communication rather than expressions of masculinity.

The Wing Chun Project by YUKI KOBAYASHI (2019-)
photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE
Extending into the histories of war, colonialism, and the contemporary meanings of combat and self-defense, the project quietly interrogates the political dimensions of the body while traversing the boundary between art and performance.

The Wing Chun Project by YUKI KOBAYASHI (2019-)
photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE

■Yukie Kamiya Prize — Sakura Koretsune
Sakura Koretsune traces the relationship between humans and whales, reflecting on materials and techniques that once served as everyday tools but are now disappearing from contemporary life. The jury emphasized her commitment to sharing, preserving, and transmitting regional stories and practices through artistic expression, particularly within the context of urgent environmental change.

Fictional Toys by SAKURA KORETSUNE (2015-2025)
photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE
By creating “imaginary toys” as vessels for both narrative and technique, Koretsune explores how imagination can open pathways toward the future. The exhibition brings together new and earlier works, forming a cohesive reflection on time, material, and memory.

Fictional Toys by SAKURA KORETSUNE (2015-2025)
photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE

■Takahiro Kaneshima Prize — Yuske Taninaka
Yuske Taninaka questions frameworks that define the body solely through productivity or empirical utility. Using healing and care as points of entry, Taninaka explores how bodily agency can be reconfigured within a community. The jury noted that while the final form of the work was the most difficult to envision, this very ambiguity provokes deeper engagement with the artist’s worldview and social perspective.

Vagus Practice by YUSKE TANINAKA (2025-)
photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE
The new work—simultaneously a musical instrument, sculpture, and interactive piece—comes into being through the participation of viewers. How the notion of “being together” is shared within the Warehouse TERRADA space is key to experiencing the work.

Left)CRISPR-PP2 (2024), CRISPR-PP8 (2024)
Center)Healing for Unsanctioned Timelines (Diagram Project)(2025)
by Yuske Taninaka / Photo by Keizo KIOKU


■ Daito Manabe Prize — Claire Fujita
Claire Fujita reconsiders relationships that allow people and nature to coexist in a society dominated by speed and efficiency. Her practice centers on recovering sensitivity toward others and the environment, inspired by the way plants continuously respond to light, temperature, and wind. The jury underscored the value of what cannot be accelerated—tacit knowledge beyond data, logs, or metrics—and the experiential power of recalibrating one’s sense of time and attention.

Auto-Pollination by CLAIRE FUJITA (2025)
photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE
Fujita herself reflects on rediscovering the importance of waiting and openness through the process of making. How this “space for coexistence” resonates with the viewer’s own bodily perception emerges as a key aspect of the exhibition.

Reaction ~ver. Dionaea muscipula~ by CLAIRE FUJITA (2025)
photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE

Tracing the “Present” of 2015 Award Recipients at WHAT CAFE
In conjunction with the finalist exhibition, WHAT CAFE presents a related exhibition featuring recent works by artists who were awarded or shortlisted in TERRADA ART AWARD 2015. By juxtaposing works from the time of their award with recent productions, the exhibition visualizes nearly a decade of artistic evolution.

WHAT CAFE EXHIBITION vol.44
From here to eternity: The Current Practices of TERRADA ART AWARD 2015 Recipients
Dates: January 10 – January 25, 2026

WHAT CAFE EXHIBITION vol.44/photo by ©FASHION HEADLINE

The announcement of the jury prizes is not an endpoint, but a point of departure toward realization through exhibition. Revisiting history, questioning the body and gender, rethinking environment and narrative, care and community, time and tacit knowledge—while each finalist approaches these concerns differently, their practices resonate in a shared commitment to engaging complexity without simplification. Within the generous openness of the Warehouse TERRADA space, their works take shape with distinct intensity. Tennoz in 2026 brings together expressions well worth encountering.