Tokyo-based poet and artist Gozo Yoshimasu has won the inaugural Serpentine x FLAG Art Foundation Prize, receiving £200,000 (approximately $272,000) along with solo exhibitions at Serpentine Galleries in London in fall 2027 and at the FLAG Art Foundation in New York in spring 2028. Yoshimasu, 87, emerged from the avant-garde scene of 1960s Tokyo and is known for blending poetry with performance, photography, audio recordings, and moving image. His work has been featured in the Shanghai Biennale, the Bienal de São Paulo, and major surveys such as “Poet Slash Artist” at Factory International. The prize was selected by a jury including Serpentine artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, FLAG Foundation director Jonathan Rider, MoMA curator Michelle Kuo, Museum MACAN director Venus Lau, and artist Rirkrit Tiravanija.
The prize, endowed with £1 million by the FLAG Art Foundation last December, is the largest cash award in the UK and will be given to five artists every other year. FLAG founder and ARTnews Top 200 Collector Glenn Fuhrman stated the award aims to create a New York–London exchange and provide unmatched opportunities for artists of any age. For Yoshimasu, the recognition validates his cross-disciplinary practice that dissolves boundaries between language, sound, and visual art. The prize also marks a significant milestone for the artist, who has never had a major solo show in Europe or the US, and underscores a growing institutional commitment to supporting experimental, intergenerational artists on a global stage.