Masanori Handa

Masanori Handa's world is one of playful, impressionistic, yet nonetheless contemplative experimentation. Fleeting encounters and occurences often give vital momentum to his practice. Sites, scenery, and urban phenomena are the loci at which incidents are recorded and vividly remembered by Handa. His unique approach results in a variety of large installations and sculpture.

At his first solo exhibition in Ota Fine Arts Tokyo, he reconfigured "150 hedron", a particular Islamic symbol. The structure was constructed with brass and glass, 3 metres in height and coloured by buttermilk and coal tar. This paint mixture became cracked as time passed by, and came to litter the floor, dappling it like snowflakes. In addition, he set up "Golden Cloud" made of brass and a cracked signboard with directions to an absurd and fictitious mosque formed by objects from strange, different origins. Handa wished to express the magnificence of daily religious activities in Islamic cities around the world as something that could not be fully explained or understood.

At Ota Fine Arts Singapore, Handa staged an immense, yet intricate, site-specific installation titled "nakakiyo no entakukei" put together with an assortment of trailing vines, timber, cement, canvas, foam and fabric. The enormity of the work was breathtaking, and inspired by the atmosphere, climate, psychogeography and cross-cultural dialogue.

Masanori Handa (b. 1979, Japan) completed a BA in Fine Arts at the Tokyo University of the Arts in 2003. His solo exhibitions include “A Palace”, Ota Fine Arts, Singapore (2017), “nakakiyo no entakukei”, Ota Fine Arts, Singapore/ Tokyo, Japan (2013/ 2015). He also participated in various group exhibitions including “The Rolex Arts Festival”, The National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, Athens, Greece (2023), “Hawai‘i Triennale 2022: Pacific Century – E Ho‘omau no Moananuiākea“, Hawaii, USA (2022), “Art House Project”, Setouchi Triennale, Inujima, Japan (2019), “TWO STICKS”, The Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, Warsaw, Poland (2015), “ERASURE: FROM CONCEPTUALISM TO ABSTRACTION”, Osage Hong Kong / City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (2015), "Ways of Worldmaking", The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (2011). His works are in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo, Japan), Edoardo Chiossone Museum (Italy), Daiwa Radiator Factory (Japan), and Japan Foundation (Japan).