Yuko Mohri, a Japanese sculptor whose assemblages of fruit and found objects are in high demand on the international art circuit, has won yet another accolade: the Calder Prize, which is awarded by the namesake artist’s foundation and comes with $50,000.
Mohri had already built a long CV in her native Japan before she represented the country at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Building on installations that appeared in biennials held in Gwangju and Sydney, her Japanese Pavilion typified her maximalist practice, which often involves creating from furniture, wiring, piping, lights, instruments, food, and more that are hooked together. Often, these installations produce sound.
Her Venice pavilion was among the most widely praised national presentations of that year and appears to have begat an array of international museum shows, including one held last year at the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan. That exhibition, her largest to date, is due to travel to the Centro Botín in March.
She is also set to have shows at the Bass museum in Miami and the Barbican Centre in London this year. Her first show in the US, at New York’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, opens this month.
Through the Calder Prize, the Tokyo-based artist will also be able to take a residency at the Atelier Calder in Saché, France.
Alexander S. C. Rower, the Calder Foundation’s president, said in a statement, “Yuko’s work is at once enigmatic and inviting, successfully drawing viewers into real-time experiences influenced by many random factors—time, space, and unseen forces such as gravity, sound, air, and light. While it is easy to draw parallels with my grandfather’s work, Yuko’s aesthetic voice is strongly resonant, and I look forward to her continued contributions to the history of art as her practice evolves and grows.”
