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.

Born in Kanagawa, Japan in 1979, Masanori Handa completed a BA in Fine Arts at the Tokyo University of the Arts. His recent solo exhibitions include "Tokyo Palace", Statements, Tokyo (2017), "Nakakiyo No Entakukei", Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo (2015), "Metamorphosis : objects today", gallery αM project 2009, Tokyo (2010). He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions including " Setouchi Triennale 2019", Nujima, Okayama (2019-), "TWO STICKS", The Museum of Architecture, Wroclaw, Poland (2015), "Ways of World Making", The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2011), "The Age of Micropop: The New Generation of Japanese Artists", Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki (2007), "the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale", Niigata (2006). Major collection destinations include Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, The Japan Foundation, Takahashi Collection. He has participated in "Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative" since 2008. From 2010 to 2012, he made works through fieldwork in Europe with the support of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.