SOLD OUT
INSIDE THE STUDIO Takashi Murakami

Friday, April 8
6:30 pm

Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami has made a name for himself by transforming pop culture into high art with a bold and often deliberately commercial aesthetic sensibility. His use of pop culture symbols and his creation of the Kaikai Kiki Factory, a collective space for young artists, have earned Murakami countless comparisons to Andy Warhol, yet Murakami’s work distinguishes itself by also speaking to a deeper sense of postwar national identity. As the final installment of the Superflat trilogy, Little Boy–which refers to the codename used for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and which personifies the culture of “cute” that dominates popular forms in Japan–goes beyond a surface rendering of Japan’s popular cultures to identify a darker graphic subculture, to express Murakami’s vision of contemporary Japan. Public art installations by Kaikai Kiki artists will also be in display at several local venues. This program features a conversation between Takashi Murakami, curator of the exhibition Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture and exhibition catalogue contributors Midori Matsui and Kaichiro Morikawa.

Followed by a reception.

Held in conjunction with the exhibition Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture, on view at the Japan Society Gallery April 8 – July 25. Ticketholders for this event will be admitted free to the Gallery this evening.

Tickets: $20; Japan Society members & seniors $15; students $12.