Introduction

Takashi Murakami has firmly established himself in the international art scene with his spectacular and distinctively Japanese aesthetic. Inspired by his homeland’s anime and manga culture, he creates loud, brightly coloured paintings that are instantly recognizable and have earned him the moniker “The Japanese Andy Warhol”. In true pop-art style, he blurs the boundaries between fine art and mass culture, integrating marketing and consumerism into his artistic concept. In doing so, he traverses the spheres of art, design, and pop culture, as shown by his collaboration with Louis Vuitton and the album cover he designed for Kanye West.

While studying Art at university, Murakami began to experiment with traditional Japanese painting, an influence that is still visible in his work. The artistic approach he developed, Superflat, traces aesthetic links between contemporary Japanese pop culture and the country’s artistic heritage. Particularly important is the two-dimensional “flat” composition, a hallmark of Japan’s visual culture which differs from the illusion of spatial depth in the Western tradition. The term “Superflat” also refers to the flattening of the cultural hierarchy between “high” and “low”, something that has become popular in post-war Japan.

In Murakami’s work, cool and kitsch are never far apart. Colourful can seem bleak and apocalyptic; cute and creepy intertwine almost seamlessly. This ambiguity is what is so fascinating about his work. Diverse stimuli overwhelm viewers and suck them into the surreal and colourful imagery. Over time, the artist has created his own distinctive iconography. Laughing flowers, mushrooms, and skulls, for example, are recurrent motifs that pervade his works. They can be found throughout his paintings, sculptures, and designs.

“Flower Balls” stands out through its clever play with space and illusion. By introducing a distorted perspective, the prints appear – depending on the viewing angle – almost three-dimensional. This effect is strengthened through the floating appearance in the frame. They are super flat, and yet sculptural, at the same time.

Daniela Kummle

Bio

1962	Born in Tokyo, Japan
1988	Master of Fine Arts from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, Japan
1993	PhD from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, Japan
1998	Guest Professor at UCLA’s School of Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, USA
2001	Founded the art production company “Kaikai Kiki” with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan and an office in New York, USA
	Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan and New York, USA

Collections

	Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
	Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiew, Ukraine
	Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
	Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Australia
	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
	Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
	Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, New York, USA

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

2015	Murakami, The 500 Arhats, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2014	In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
	Arhat Cycle, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
2013	Takashi in Superflat Wonderland, Plateau, Seoul, South Korea
	Takashi Murakami, Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong, China
	Arhat. Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, USA
2012	Flowers and Skulls, Gagosian Gallery, Hong Kong, China
	Murakami: Ego, Qatar Museums Authority, Doha, Qatar
	Takashi Murakami, Gagosian Gallery, London, UK
2011	Homage to Yves Klein, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France

Group Exhibitions

2016	Superflat Collection: From Shohaku and Rasanjin to Anselm Kiefer, Yokohama
	Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan
2015	The Mannequin of History: Art After Fabrications of Critique and Culture, Expo 2015
	Modena, Modena, Italy
2014	G I R L, curated by Pharrell Williams, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
	Takahashi Collection 2014: Mindfulness! Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan
	Dirge: Reflections on [Life and] Death, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, USA
	Making Links: 25 Years, SCAI, The Bathhouse, Tokyo, Japan
2013	Intellectual Game, Shanghai Xintiandi Culture Festival, Shanghai, China
	Re: Quest―Japanese Contemporary Art since the 1970s, Museum of Art Seoul, South Korea
	Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
2012	Regarding Warhol. Sixty Artists; Fifty Years, Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA
2011	Collection Platform 1: Circulation, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev, Ukraine
	The World Belongs to You, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
2009	Sold Out: The Artist in the Age of Pop, Tate Modern, London, UK