Singapore artist Ho Tzu Nyen is first Singaporean to win grand prize at the Fukuoka Prize

Ho Tzu Nyen at his solo show, Ho Tzu Nyen: Time & The Tiger, at the Singapore Art Museum in 2023.

    PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE – Singapore artist Ho Tzu Nyen has been selected as the grand prize laureate of the Fukuoka Prize, which recognises those who have made outstanding contributions to the fields of Asian studies and arts and culture.

The secretariat of the Fukuoka Prize Committee announced the prize in Fukuoka, Japan, on May 22. Ho is the first Singaporean to be selected for the grand prize, which comes with a money award of 5,000,000 yen (S$40,200), in its 36-year history.

Artist Tang Da Wu, singer-songwriter Dick Lee and theatremaker Ong Keng Sen were also laureates of the Fukuoka Prize in 1999, 2003 and 2010, winning in the arts and culture category.

Ho, 49, tells The Straits Times the “extraordinary honour” was beyond his wildest dreams. His win is all the more striking in the context of the prize’s alumni.

He says: “I’m deeply humbled when I look at the list of past recipients across its various categories, among them scholars like Benedict Anderson, James C. Scott, Reynaldo Ileto and Joseph Needham, whose writings have opened pathways for me over decades; and film-makers like Akira Kurosawa and Hou Hsiao-hsien, whose works first made me dream that I, too, might one day express myself with moving images.”

He also paid tribute to artists Nam June Paik and Tang, who have long been his models and heroes. “In a way, I would like to thank them all. Receiving this award encourages me to continue, to strive to do better and, hopefully, to go further.”

The prize secretariat describes his work as uniquely offering “multifaceted, fluid perspectives on fundamental questions of Asian identity and Japan’s position in Asia”.