※EVENT CLOSED※ Yoshitomo Nara is probably Japan’s most famous contemporary artist, second only to Takashi Murakami. Even if you don’t know his name, you’ll likely know his signature images: strange portraits of children that are part cute, part creepy.
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The aesthetic of Nara’s art is beguilingly simple (as is the technique, since he can churn out drawings at a rate of a score per day), but his work has previously been compared to Balthus, outsider art, and children’s paintings.
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Yoshitomo Nara – Shallow Puddles, 2015 – Blum & Poe, Tokyo – © Yoshitomo Nara
Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo – Photo: Keizo Kioku
“Shallow Puddles” is the first show by Nara at Blum & Poe’s new Tokyo branch. As Takashi Murakami also opens a major new exhibition at Mori Art Museum in Roppongi, visitors to Tokyo currently have the chance to see exhibitions by both representative artists from Japan’s post-Bubble art scene in the same day, albeit a short time through November 14th.
Blum & Poe have acquired much cachet for championing Japanese art stateside, from older movements like Mono-ha to contemporary artists. And so it felt natural that the gallery would complement their LA and New York branches with a Tokyo gallery, which opened in Harajuku in 2014. While it is Nara’s eighth show in total with Blum & Poe, it is his first with them in Japan.
Whereas Murakami has spent much of his time building up a business empire and trying his hand in the fashion, music, and anime industries, Yoshitomo Nara’s output has remained relatively consistent throughout his career. And so, while you may only know his drawings, “Shallow Puddles” offers an opportunity to see his work in a different format: as large paintings on circular dishes.![]()
Yoshitomo Nara, Shallow Puddles 2004, 2004, Acrylic on cotton, mounted on fiber reinforced plastic. 37 3/8 (diameter) x 6 inches, Title revised in 2015, © Yoshitomo Nara. Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo
Blum & Poe says: “Central to this exhibition is a total of 12 paintings executed on shallow circular dishes, covered with small square patches of canvas. Mounted on walls, these dishes seemingly create portals to a world inundated with water. Depicted on each is a solitary figure that, like those in many of the artist’s iconic paintings, holds the viewer’s gaze with its large, full eyes, some even with averted eyes. Ground and figure are the main components of each work, yet the artist’s painterly execution calls attention to his manipulation of color, form, and composition to create an image that transcends traditional portraiture.”
The uniformity of the format belies the individuality of each portrait. The paintings date from 2004 to 2006, though one of them has been retouched by Nara especially for the show and is strikingly different. Can you tell which one it is?![]()
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The characters on the FRP dishes are familiar: here are the usual children, slightly androgynous, slightly damaged—the sinister side to what the Japanese call kawaii, a word often unsatisfactorily translated as “cute.” The ambivalence of the concept is visible in Nara’s work.
The gallery recommends you visit during the morning when you can benefit from viewing the paintings in the natural light shining in through the window wall. As the afternoon draws on, the glare from the sun is too much and staff draw the blinds down.
Aside from the new Murakami show in Roppongi, there is another development that makes a visit to this exhibition very timely.![]()
Yoshitomo Nara – Shallow Puddles, 2015 – Blum & Poe, Tokyo – © Yoshitomo Nara
Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo – Photo: Keizo Kioku
Once a poster boy for alienated recessionary Japan, Nara has started to come out of his shell since the 2011 Fukushima and Tohoku disaster. His images were taken up by the anti-nuclear power protest movement and were frequently seen on placards at demonstrations. His art was again visible at the recent mass protests against the controversial state security bills. Nara’s art has been conventionally associated with female fans; young women who don’t necessarily go to art shows on a regular basis but who find some sort of catharsis in his portraits of childhood. Now Nara’s fans are also anti-government and anti-war protesters.
That being said, this is what is happening with reproductions of his drawings, which can be easily appropriated (and also turned into consumer merchandise). His actual paintings still exist largely in the hallowed world of art galleries and auction houses, far away from rallies and marches. As such, a trip to Blum & Poe is a must if you want to see the work of one of Japan’s leading artists up close.
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