Art Basel Hong Kong: Masaomi Yasunaga: A Certain Trajectory at Encounters
Overview
Installation view: Masaomi Yasunaga: A Certain Trajectory, Encounters, Art Basel Hong Kong, 2026. © Masaomi Yasunaga.
Courtesy Nonaka-Hill Gallery and Lisson Gallery.
Photography by Andrea Rossetti.
Nonaka-Hill and Lisson Gallery are delighted to announce Masaomi Yasunaga's participation in Art Basel Hong Kong’s Encounters, 2026. Dedicated to large-scale projects that transcend the traditional gallery booth, Encounters returns as a central sector of Art Basel Hong Kong. The 2026 edition presents works guided by a curatorial vision that draws on The Five Elements — a cosmological framework widely found in Asia, with each element (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water) designated to specific areas throughout the convention halls. Encounters at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 is curated by Isabella Tam, Mami Kataoka, Alia Swastika, and Hirokazu Tokuyama.
Yasunaga’s presentation, titled A Certain Trajectory, includes eight large-scale vessels formed through his experimental methods which, now mastered, have elevated glaze to an unprecedented manifestation as a primary sculpting medium, almost entirely eliminating clay. About his practice, the artist has stated: “Creating a kind of enigma is an important virtue that I strive for in my vessels and sculptures.” Molten and solidified, Yasunaga’s radically conceived vessels culminate from a dynamic exchange between Artist, The Elements and the awesome forces of fire and time. Seemingly shaped and weathered by earthly forces across centuries— destabilizing our perception of time itself to confirm the supremacy of nature’s elemental forces over the world of mankind, Yasunaga’s vessels invite viewers into an imagined past and speculative future.
Yasunaga’s presentation, titled A Certain Trajectory, includes eight large-scale vessels formed through his experimental methods which, now mastered, have elevated glaze to an unprecedented manifestation as a primary sculpting medium, almost entirely eliminating clay. About his practice, the artist has stated: “Creating a kind of enigma is an important virtue that I strive for in my vessels and sculptures.” Molten and solidified, Yasunaga’s radically conceived vessels culminate from a dynamic exchange between Artist, The Elements and the awesome forces of fire and time. Seemingly shaped and weathered by earthly forces across centuries— destabilizing our perception of time itself to confirm the supremacy of nature’s elemental forces over the world of mankind, Yasunaga’s vessels invite viewers into an imagined past and speculative future.
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