When I confront the mountains of rubble that humans have created and thrown into the world, my body moves. I think this sensation is art.

《Work name》
ONo.499 Research on the development of the structure and techniques of "all" spaces, centered on painting
Study of paintings

Comments from the judges on the award
I think what's interesting about Ezaki's work is that it "question[s] assumptions." Rather than moving his hands as he pleases, I think it's important that he starts by questioning his own assumptions and the assumptions of painting. (Imamura Yusaku)

As I create, I feel as if the work begins to take on an independent form. Rather, the work takes on a life of its own, and with my help, I guide it to completion.

《Work name》
Doll painting -Hands-
Doll painting (hand, and)

Comments from the judges on the award
About her "paintings": Sometimes they bypass the magnetic field of logical art, and sometimes it seems as if she carefully and boldly listens to the rhythm of life in the colors and forms of her everyday handiwork. At the moment when Matsuura's act of sewing is transformed into a painting, there is a mysterious transparency where matter and spirit blend together. Perhaps her expression is born from a "transparent path" that is guided from the depths of her soul. I sincerely hope that this delicate yet powerful path will continue to bear even more abundant fruit. (Usukubo Kaori)

After discovering gaps in my family's memories through photographs of my grandmother, I began creating works that reconstruct lost traces from a third-person perspective and explore connections.

《Work name》
Lingering Shadow
Echoes of Shadows

The distorted female image generated by AI challenges the norms of art history and the prejudices of technology, providing an opportunity to reexamine the boundaries of perception.

《Work name》
reclining statue
Reclining Figure

He expresses the social and psychological aspects of modern times through painting and color. In this work, he creates works based on the theme of the conflict between fiction and reality.

《Work name》
serious and unimportant
serious and unimportant

Comments from the judges on the award
The Grand Prize winner, Erika Ainami's work, depicts scenes that are everyday but somehow lack a sense of reality. It is as if a semi-abstract, ambiguous story resides within them. At first glance, the depiction may seem stereotypical, but I was fascinated by her ambition to create a pictorial space with a unique atmosphere that is unique to her. (Tatehata Akira)

I believe that by arranging each of our creations together, a kind of temperament or emotion will fill the space.

《Work name》
It's like water
Like water

I try to find ways to bring out these movements, including habits, structures, and bodies that emerge from dynamic functions and everyday elements, through contact with the artwork.

《Work name》
Podium
Podium

I just draw what I see in my everyday life.

《Work name》
back
back

Through a fusion of humans and AI, flowers and sculpture, the exhibition visualizes issues of life, freedom, and authenticity in the information age.

《Work name》
Black Goat Project
The Black Goat

Comments from the judges on the award
In an age accelerated by AI, life and imagination (delusional power) are becoming more and more important. Yang Taku's series of works deserves high praise as a challenging endeavor. Project Chimera breaks through the existing framework of art, and we look forward to further breakthroughs. (Goto Shigeo)

I was shocked when Yang, a former flower Artist, said, "Flowers are artificial objects that have been selectively bred." I feel that we are entering an era in which various objects will be rapidly transformed into artificial objects thanks to cutting-edge technologies such as AI and 3D printers. This work is an experiment in developing a chimera that fuses different objects, using the concept of "flowers = reproduction" as a starting point, and it embodies the light and shadow of the trends of our time. It is a work that combines both pure and impure, asking the viewer what they want to do in the future as their relationship with cutting-edge technologies such as rapidly evolving AI deepens. (OCA TOKYO)

The lines and shapes you draw with your fingertips on the iPad transcend your body and fill the entire space. The digital space gradually distorts reality.

《Work name》
Untitled
untitled

Comments from the judges on the award
I felt a strong sense of creativity in this unique visual experience that transcends the boundaries between digital and physical, concrete and abstract. In business, we too are redefining existing values and creating new ones. I felt a strong connection with Nakamura's work and highly praised it as worthy of the Deloitte Private Award. (Deloitte Private)

He explores the intersection of language, matter, and memory through sculpture and sound, creating works that reexamine meaning in the information age, reconstruct memory, and question the relationship between space and material.

《Work name》
Breath of Life
Bone Script of Breath

I think there are things that can be conveyed by not saying them. To achieve this, I made it ordinary rather than dramatic. I think I thought about leaving enough space to make it incomplete.

《Work name》
Takotsubo
Takotsubo

This work recreates a crate image generated by AI. It is a reconsideration of the protection of proliferating simulacra and the art of packaging.

《Work name》
Background 1.2.2
Background 1.2.2

Comments from the judges on the award
Nowadays, it is commonplace to perceive the world through a back-and-forth between the digital and real worlds, and AI is only accelerating this trend. Wada Ryuta's work critically comments on this issue while visualizing the time each medium contains. I was also particularly impressed by the way he uses each medium to confirm his own sense of reality. (Yabumae Tomoko)

He seeks to capture the poetry that is born when his own expression intersects with the traces of others carved into the city.

《Work name》
Setting a ladder, a circle is forming
Setting a ladder, a circle is forming

It's about creating images. Can you accurately capture and share things? Can you imagine the perspective of others and be strong and kind?

《Work name》
When I grow up, I'll be able to hug everyone someday
If I Grow Big Enough, I Can Save Everyone

Comments from the judges on the award
I think it's becoming even more important to confirm oneself in the midst of reality and fiction. In today's world, where we live with anxiety amid AI and the veracity of information, I think we are being asked what is possible through the method of art. (Koyama Tomio)

Perhaps it can be called a self-portrait in the broadest sense, but the abbreviated and simplified depiction has a unique feel that leaves a strong impression. It is interesting that the differences in the size of the image, whether enlarged or reduced, contain an extremely unique reflection on the self-portrait, which can only be perceived as a mirror image. (Tatehata Akira)

In order to maintain his own survival, he practices the generation and propagation of clonal images as an ecological researcher of images or as a connector of images.

《Work name》
inside my pantropy
inside my pantropy

He explores the relationship between inner and outer space through unconscious lines. He uses lines to embody emotions and memories, aiming to create a new spatial experience through three-dimensional forms.

《Work name》
Expression
Manifestation

By transforming and changing the laws of imagery and painting, the artist exposes the traps inherent in the rigidity of form, encouraging a reconsideration of the nature of beauty and painting.

《Work name》
Observation/Sit in the vantage point
Observe/Go to viewpoint

Comments from the judges on the award
This work references classical techniques, constructing the picture plane through the harmony of perspective and the human body, but I thought that the approach of logically deconstructing and reconstructing the existence of painting was worthy of recognition from a museum that places importance on historical context. The idea of combining perspective with the canvas, based on the recognition that it is actually a three-dimensional textile, is also unique. (Noguchi Reiichi)

This work raises questions about our view of maps and future social change through the material culture of glass beads.

《Work name》
WREST
WREST

In the act of painting, I repeatedly place, layer, and look at the paint, and through the qualitative overlapping of the paint that results, I hope to evoke the space within the painting surface.

《Work name》
Scenery that comes and goes
Shifting scenery

Comments from the judges on the award
The canvas paintings and clay works, which were created with an awareness of "white space," rhythmically fill the space. The white space created by the colors and shapes scattered throughout the space - the roughly cut canvases and the edges of canvases that are not neatly folded - is filled with the joy of drawing, and I believe the works are a powerful response to the fundamental questions of painting and sculpture. (Kimura Eriko)

Professor, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, Vice President (International Cooperation)
Yusaku Imamura

Now in its 19th year, the Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi is an important award that selects diverse and talented Artist, and many of Artist selected over the past 20 years are active in today's art scene. We believe that having the activities and works of these Artist close to you will inspire many more people.

Director of Hirosaki Brick Warehouse Museum
Eriko Kimura

This year's judging was striking, as it included works that were created after performances, and the fact that the international students came from a more diverse range of countries, with many Artist looking out to the wider world. There were also many paintings that consciously responded to real-world spaces, and works that displayed flowing lines on a large screen, and I look forward to seeing how they will look in the vast space of the Gyoko Underground Passage.

Editor, Creative Director, Professor Emeritus at Kyoto University of the Arts
Shigeo Goto

As AI becomes the foundation for generating value in society, the importance of depicting reality will only increase. This year's works are diverse, but even the seemingly naive works have a sense of urgency about survival. Perhaps this is a new kind of "thorn of depth."

Representative of Tomio Koyama Gallery, Vice Representative Director of the Japan Contemporary Art Dealers Association
Tomio Koyama

This time, there was a wealth of diversity in both the themes and methods of expression, and there was no trend, but rather an attitude of groping around and trying to find one's own method. For Artist, how and when to solidify one's own method is very important, and it was interesting to see the repeated practice, or experimentation, of this.

Professor Emeritus, Tama Art University
Akira Tatehata

As in previous years, there were many works with a broadly defined figurative tendency. What was interesting was the sporadic appearance of attempts to integrate digitally inclined images with physical sensations. Rather than being posthuman, these could be described as new surreal forms. Also noteworthy was the large number of plant motifs.

Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Tomoko Yabumae

There were more painting submissions than ever before, and even among those who were not selected, we were able to encounter many expressions that showed great potential and that we could see had been polished over a long period of time.While the works were highly polished, there were few overall expressions that moved the viewer, such as those inspired by the friction between the world and oneself, which made us think about the motivations of each artist.

Curator, Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo
Reiichi Noguchi

The works on display were of a high level, even from the artists' perspective. It was encouraging to see that even when the direction they wanted to go in was clear, they did not rest on their laurels and instead sought further development. What was particularly noteworthy was the pleasant surprise of seeing so many results achieved through a very straightforward approach to exploring the possibilities of spatial design through the expression of materials, lines and shapes, and monochrome/color.

Kaori Usukubo

He is currently an associate professor in the Painting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts. In 2010, he completed his doctoral studies in oil painting at the Graduate School of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts. His major exhibitions include "Wandering season" (TARONASU, Tokyo, 2007), "crystal moments" (LOOCK Galerie, Berlin, 2011), "Yokohama Triennale 2011" (Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, 2011), "Kaoru Usukubo, Hannes Beckmann" (LOOCK Galerie, Berlin, 2017), "Kaoru Usukubo and Daisuke Ohba" (LOOCK Galerie, Berlin, 2020), and "SF -Seamless Fantasy-" (MA2 gallery, Tokyo, 2021).

Masato Taniguchi

He graduated from the Department of Design and Informatics, Faculty of Art and Design, Musashino Art University in 2005, and completed his Master's degree in Intermedia Art at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2007. His major solo exhibitions include "Looking for the Place Where She Is" (AKIINOUE, Tokyo, 2025), "Where Are You♡?" (NANZUKA, Tokyo, 2022), and "We-presence" (Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, 2020), and his major group exhibitions include "Saitama International Art Festival 2023" (Former Omiya Civic Hall, Saitama, 2023), "TOKYO POP UNDERGROUND" (Jeffrey Deitch, New York and Los Angeles, 2019), and "Condo New York: Nanzuka at Petzel" (Petzel, New York, 2018).