23rd Taishin Arts Award Names Recipients

The Taishin Arts Award in Taiwan announced the three winners of its 23rd edition, selected from 15 finalists. The Visual Arts prize was awarded to Ni Xiang’s Everyone came to see you—Ni Xiang Solo Exhibition (2024), which employs installation, assemblage of found objects, and video to explore the personal and social issue of elderly care. The Performing Arts prize honored Hsu Peng’s theatrical production Great-Grand Rat-Po-Tai (So Old) Is Sleeping Next to a Landscape Painting, Diligently & Stingily Snoring——But There Is No Landscape Painting! (2024), which features a distinctive murmuring recitation style that transforms mundane domestic trivialities into a layered critique of patriarchy. The Grand Prize was awarded to Chang Li-Ren’s monumental installation Battle City: Finale (2024), which integrates sculpture, animation, moving image, puppetry, miniature model construction, and more into “sites of memory” exploring both personal growth and collective destiny. The jury was chaired by US-based critic Kao Chien-Hui, and the three awards collectively carry a total prize of NTD 3.5 million (USD 118,420).

Villa Romana Prize 2026 Winners Revealed 

Singaporean Chinese artist Charmaine Poh and Turkish German artist Gülbin Ünlü are among the four recipients of this year’s Villa Romana Prize, Germany’s oldest art award for emerging creatives based in the country. The accolade is presented by the nonprofit Villa Romana Association in Frankfurt am Main. Poh, who is based between Singapore and Berlin, works across moving image, installation, and performance to probe the social construction of identity as well as notions of queerness and femininity in Asia. She is the first artist of Singaporean descent to receive the award since its establishment in 1905. Ünlü, based in Munich, works across painting, installation, video, performance, and music to transcend media boundaries, exploring themes of fractured memory, loss, and aesthetic resistance. Along with the other two recipients—Mikołaj Sobczak and Susanne Sachsse—the winning artists will participate in a 10-month residency at the Villa Romana in Florence, Italy, from February to November 2026. Each of them will receive a EUR 2,000 (USD 2,955) monthly stipend and the opportunity to take part in exhibitions in Florence and across Germany.

Hong Kong’s Supper Club Wraps Up After Two Years 

Hong Kong’s Supper Club—a hybrid art event that took place during the city’s annual art week in March—has been discontinued after two editions. Founded in 2024 by local gallerists Willem Molesworth, Ysabelle Cheung, and Alex Chan to challenge traditional art fair and market paradigms, Supper Club hosted exhibitions alongside performances and social gatherings during March, coinciding with Art Basel Hong Kong. While the event originally debuted at the Fringe Club last year, its 2025 iteration occupied two floors of Hong Kong’s H Queen’s art hub, spotlighting artists from 18 international and regional galleries. In a social media post on June 11, the three co-founders stated that “there may be other experimental projects in the vein of [Supper Club],” adding that they “continue to believe in alternative models, and will strive to advocate for Hong Kong’s arts scene.”

Japan Announces Curatorial Team for Venice Biennale 2026 

Nearly two months after naming Los Angeles-based performance artist Ei Arakawa-Nash as Japan’s representative at the 2026 Venice Biennale, the Japan Foundation has appointed Lisa Horikawa and Mizuki Takahashi as co-curators for the Japan pavilion. Horikawa is senior curator and director of curatorial & collections at National Gallery Singapore, and Takahashi is executive director and chief curator of Hong Kong’s Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT). This is the first time that the Japan Pavilion’s entire team is based outside the country. Japan’s participation in the upcoming 61st edition of the Venice Biennale will mark the national pavilion’s 70th anniversary.

Carrie Yamaoka Wins 2025 Maria Lassnig Prize 

The Maria Lassnig Foundation has named Japanese American artist Carrie Yamaoka as the recipient of its 2025 Maria Lassnig Prize. Yamaoka will receive EUR 50,000 (USD 57,500) and present a solo exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 2026. Known for her experimental use of materials and engagement with themes of perception and identity, Yamaoka works across painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture. She is also a founding member of the queer art collective fierce pussy, formed in New York in 1991. Her work has been shown at venues including New York’s MoMA PS1, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Established by Austrian artist Maria Lassnig before her death in 2014, the eponymous prize is a biennial award honoring mid-career artists. Past recipients include British artist and curator Lubaina Himid (2023), Ghanaian painter and graphic artist Atta Kwami (2021), Bangalore-based artist Sheela Gowda (2019), and Irish multidisciplinary artist Cathy Wilkes (2017).

Samstag Announces Upcoming Exhibition Program

Adelaide’s Samstag Museum of Art has announced two new exhibitions for its 2025 Kudlila season: a solo exhibition spotlighting the sculptural works of German-born artist Frank Bauer highlighting his cross-disciplinary explorations of metal, light, movement, repetition, and time, and “North Terrace: worlds in relief,” a group exhibition featuring new works by Narungga poet and activist Natalie Harkin; Sydney-based researcher and educator Andrew Burrell; Cambodian Australian filmmaker Allison Chhorn; Adelaide-based artist Louise Haselton; and the ArtHitects—comprising Australian artist Gary Carsley and and Singaporean architect Renjie Teoh. Through sculpture, moving image, design, and archival materials, it reflects on Adelaide’s colonial legacy and the contested histories of North Terrace. A public launch event will be held on June 19, with both exhibitions on view through September 26 at Samstag Museum of Art.