Gozo Yoshimasu wins first Serpentine x Flag Art Foundation Prize

The Japanese artist and poet Gozo Yoshimasu, 87, has been awarded the inaugural £200,000 Serpentine x Flag Art Foundation Prize, the largest contemporary art prize in the UK. Yoshimasu will also stage a solo exhibition at London’s Serpentine North gallery in autumn 2027 followed by a presentation at the Flag Art Foundation, a non-profit space located in Manhattan, in spring 2028.

Yoshimasu’s experimental poems “traverse diverse geographic and discursive topoi and test the limits of translation”, say the organisers. Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artistic director of the Serpentine and Bettina Korek, the chief executive of the Serpentine, say in a statement: “One of Japan’s most radical living poets, Yoshimasu has spent over six decades dissolving the boundaries between language, sound and visual art, and at 87, continues to push into new territories.” His work was featured in the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, which closed early this year.

The Serpentine x Flag Art Foundation Prize will honour five artists over ten years, awarding £1m in total. “The prize is intended to provide artists, at a significant stage in their careers, with the time, freedom and resources to experiment, follow new lines of enquiry and develop work in whatever direction feels most meaningful,” says a statement. The Flag Art Foundation was founded by Glenn Fuhrman, a contemporary art collector who co-founded the private investment firm MSD Capital, and his wife Amanda.

Artists selected for the prize can be any age, based anywhere worldwide, and will need to have been exhibiting professionally “in major global institutions” for less than ten years, the organisers say. A rotating jury of curators, art historians and artists will select the winners; this year’s jury comprised Michelle Kuo, chief curator at large at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Venus Lau, the director of the Museum Macan in Jakarta, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Jonathan Rider of the Flag Art Foundation.