Event · Long Island City
At the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, NYC, Yohji Yamamoto and Danh Vo Receive the 2026 Isamu Noguchi Award
On October 6, the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City presented its 13th Isamu Noguchi Award to designer Yohji Yamamoto and artist Danh Vo at its annual benefit, held in the 75th anniversary year of Akari, with dinner in galleries lit by the light sculptures.
By NBT Editors · 2026-10-17
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On Tuesday, October 6, 2026, the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City held its annual benefit and presented the 13th Isamu Noguchi Award to fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto and artist Danh Vo. The benefit is the museum's most important fundraiser. It supports exhibitions, education programs, care of the world's largest collection of Noguchi's work, and preservation of the artist's archives and spaces.
Established in 2014, the award honors people from any discipline who share Noguchi's spirit of innovation, with work marked by fearless experimentation, cross-cultural dialogue and social consciousness. Earlier honorees include Tadao Ando, Rei Kawakubo, Naoto Fukasawa, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Lee Ufan.
Yamamoto founded Y's in 1972 and showed his first runway collection in Paris in 1981. Known as the "poet of black," he has rejected conventional ideas of fit, proportion and gender. His work reaches Y-3 with adidas, costumes for Takeshi Kitano's films, a Wagner opera and a Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal performance. The museum links his reworking of past forms to Noguchi's idea of the "true development" of craft traditions. Born in Tokyo in 1943, he works in Tokyo and Paris. WWD reported that he could not attend and was honored with a film in which he spoke of Noguchi. His statement said Noguchi opened a space between East and West, and beyond.
Vo, born in Vietnam in 1975 and now based at his farm and studio Güldenhof in Germany, has spent a decade in dialogue with Noguchi's work. It began in 2018 with projects at M+ in Hong Kong and SMK in Copenhagen. It continued through Mudam Luxembourg and Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, and most recently Danh Vo in Situ: Akari by Noguchi at M+. Director Amy Hau presented him with the award, according to WWD.
The evening fell in the 75th anniversary year of Akari. Guests had cocktails in the sculpture garden and first-floor galleries. Hau and Board Chair Susan Kessler led the ceremony, and Japan's Consul General in New York, Ambassador Satoshi Katahira, gave remarks. Dinner followed in the second-floor galleries, lit by Akari and floral designs by Eriko Nagata Floral Studio, and a silent auction offered Octetra and Play Sculpture.
Vo's exhibition at White Cube New York ran through October 16. His Vilcek Foundation presentation, Danh Vo: Rebuilding Liberty, continues through June 25, 2027. Gifts can still be made online, and questions go to benefit@noguchi.org.
