Yoshitomo Nara

‘Rediscover punk rock and your inner child at this memorable show.’ ***** Review of Yoshitomo Nara, Hayward Gallery - Evening Standard Dive into the captivating, creative world of Yoshitomo Nara in the largest European retrospective of one of Japan’s most celebrated artists. Accompanies the first UK solo exhibition at a public institution by the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. Spanning four decades of the artist’s work, it offers readers a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the personal and creative world of this internationally acclaimed artist. Yoshitomo Nara primarily identifies as a painter while working across a wide range of mediums, such as drawing, collage, sculpture, installation and materials including found objects, cardboard, wood, plaster, textile, ceramic and fibreglass. He is widely known for his bold images of children with large heads and wide eyes that challenge the viewers with their direct gaze and defiant stance. These captivating yet ominous characters are part of a wider visual vocabulary established by Nara to explore and communicate themes of home, isolation, resilience, belonging, regeneration, hope and freedom. Organised thematically, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution and breadth of Nara’s artistic expression. It conveys Nara’s singular aesthetic drawn from his formative experiences in Japan and his time in Germany, as well as his ongoing environmental and societal concerns, which are deeply rooted in nature and the communities of Japan’s northern Tohoku region, where he grew up. Memories as a continuous flow runs through Nara’s work. This is in parallel with the inspiration he takes from popular music, which he has been listening to since childhood – folk songs by American singer-songwriters featuring antiwar messages, melancholic blues and, later, glam rock, punk and new wave. The Hayward Gallery presentation is an expanded version of the touring exhibition from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden. It features a group of Nara’s most recent paintings, including several new works.

Three decades of the beloved Japanese artist’s paintings, drawings, sculptures and more Published with Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Yoshitomo Nara is among the most beloved Japanese artists of his generation. His widely recognizable portraits of menacing figures reflect the artist’s raw encounters with his inner self. Nara’s oeuvre takes inspiration from a wide range of resources—memories of his childhood, music, literature, studying and living in Germany (1988–2000), exploring his roots in Japan, Sakhalin and Asia, and modern art from Europe and Japan. Spanning 35 years (1985 to 2020), this book—which accompanies the major career retrospective organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—presents the full range of Nara’s work. It also examines the artist’s work through the lens of his longtime passion—music—and features “liner notes” written by the artist about various albums in his personal collection of 1960s and 70s folk and rock albums, published in English for the first time. The book features paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramic figures, an installation that re-creates his drawing studio, and never-before-exhibited idea sketches that reflect the artist’s empathic eye, shining a light on Nara’s conceptual process. Readers will see the evolution of a dynamic artist who has become more contemplative with age. Yoshitomo Nara was born in 1959 in Aomori, Japan, and graduated with a master's degree from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music and later studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In the fall of 2010, the Asia Society in New York presented the first major New York exhibition of his work. He is represented by Pace Gallery and Blum & Poe.

‘Rediscover punk rock and your inner child at this memorable show.’ ***** Review of Yoshitomo Nara, Hayward Gallery - Evening Standard Dive into the captivating, creative world of Yoshitomo Nara in the largest European retrospective of one of Japan’s most celebrated artists. Accompanies the first UK solo exhibition at a public institution by the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. Spanning four decades of the artist’s work, it offers readers a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the personal and creative world of this internationally acclaimed artist. Yoshitomo Nara primarily identifies as a painter while working across a wide range of mediums, such as drawing, collage, sculpture, installation and materials including found objects, cardboard, wood, plaster, textile, ceramic and fibreglass. He is widely known for his bold images of children with large heads and wide eyes that challenge the viewers with their direct gaze and defiant stance. These captivating yet ominous characters are part of a wider visual vocabulary established by Nara to explore and communicate themes of home, isolation, resilience, belonging, regeneration, hope and freedom. Organised thematically, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution and breadth of Nara’s artistic expression. It conveys Nara’s singular aesthetic drawn from his formative experiences in Japan and his time in Germany, as well as his ongoing environmental and societal concerns, which are deeply rooted in nature and the communities of Japan’s northern Tohoku region, where he grew up. Memories as a continuous flow runs through Nara’s work. This is in parallel with the inspiration he takes from popular music, which he has been listening to since childhood – folk songs by American singer-songwriters featuring antiwar messages, melancholic blues and, later, glam rock, punk and new wave. The Hayward Gallery presentation is an expanded version of the touring exhibition from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden. It features a group of Nara’s most recent paintings, including several new works.

The definitive book on the life and career of internationally acclaimed artist Yoshitomo Nara Yoshitomo Nara rose to prominence in the mid-1990s, a star in a generation of avant-garde Japanese artists associated with the neo-Pop 'Superflat' movement. This book, made in close collaboration with Nara himself, explores more than three decades of his work - and is the first truly authoritative monograph on the artist in more than a decade. Written by art historian Yeewan Koon and featuring texts by Nara himself, it includes his most recent work in painting, drawing, sculpture, and ceramics.

The definitive book on the life and career of internationally acclaimed artist Yoshitomo Nara Yoshitomo Nara rose to prominence in the mid-1990s, a star in a generation of avant-garde Japanese artists associated with the neo-Pop ‘Superflat' movement. This book, made in close collaboration with Nara himself, explores more than three decades of his work - and is the first truly authoritative monograph on the artist in more than a decade. Written by art historian Yeewan Koon and featuring texts by Nara himself, it includes his most recent work in painting, drawing, sculpture, and ceramics.