Photo by Shin Suzuki
Join us for an exciting conversation between internationally renowned artist Takashi Murakami and MOCA Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs Clara Kim. Coinciding with the opening of the artist’s exhibitionHARK BACK TO UKIYO-E: TRACING SUPERFLAT TO JAPONISME’S GENESISat Perrotin Gallery, Los Angeles, the conversation will address Murakami’s long engagement with and theories on Japanese art, reflecting on the seminal exhibitionSuperflat,curated by Murakami, which was presented at MOCA in 2001. His groundbreaking practice defies categorization, blurring the line between art and commerce, and transforms the intersections between art, manga and anime, fashion, and design.
Takashi Murakami, who has a PhD in nihonga painting, combines the most cutting-edge techniques with the precision and virtuosity of traditional Japanese art. Inspired by anime and character culture, his irresistible world is peopled by monstrous and charming characters alike, facetiously portrayed as descendants of past myths. His theory of Superflat aesthetic, which he introduced in 2001 with the trilogy exhibition he curated (the third part was titled “Little Boy,” a reference to the code name for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945), attempts to blur the boundaries between popular art and high art. Superflat movement has explored the evolution of Japan’s understanding of its post-Hiroshima social condition and the interrelationships between vanguard art, manga and anime, and their forerunner, nihonga. The absence of perspective, the historical two-dimensionality of Japanese art, filters into every medium.
Since his first monographic exhibition outside Japan in 1995 at Perrotin, Murakami has achieved recognition as one of the most prominent contemporary artists of his time, and his work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions at museums and art institutions throughout the world.
Major Solo ExhibitionsStepping on the Tail of a Rainbow, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA, 2025Mononoke Kyoto, Kyoto City KYOCERAMuseum of Art, Kyoto, Japan, 2024Swelling of Monsterized Human Ego, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA, 2023Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow, The Broad, Los Angeles, USA, 2022The 500 Arhats, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2015Murakami-Ego, Al Riwaq Hall, Doha, Qatar, 2012MURAKAMI VERSAILLES, Château de Versailles, Versailles, France, 2010
@ Copyright MURAKAMI, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA, 2007-8
Getting to The Geffen Contemporary at MOCARideshare and public transportation encouraged. Use theMetro Trip Plannerto plan your visit
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