Yoshitomo Nara

Yoshitomo Nara is a Japanese painter born in 1959. In his artistic practice, he draws inspiration from three elements that lulled his childhood: solitude, manga and Western music. Introduced to pop art in the 1990s, he joined the Superflat movement with Mukarami and Chiho Aoshima. His works often feature childlike, kawaii figures, marked by dark humor and a certain cynicism. He sometimes places weapons in the hands of the children he depicts, enabling them to defend themselves against dangerous forces. Today, he is the Japanese artist whose work sells at the highest prices, and has been exhibited at MoMA in New York, Galerie Kaikai Kiki in Tokyo and Galerie Blum and Poe in Los Angeles.