'Solid Fist (Red)', 2017
Artist Skateboard / Skate Deck
Born in Aomori, Japan, in 1959, Yoshitomo Nara is part of a generation of young Japanese artists whose works are primarily based in Japanese pop culture - manga (comics) and television animation. He combines high and low art by painting cartoon-like children with a skilled brush and a complex palette. Nara's children, influenced by comic book characters, are at once innocent and demonic. The big, rounded heads contain glaring eyes, and their bodies often take on a defiant stance. Roberta Smith of The New York Times states, '(The paintings) undermine the tendency to idealize and infantilize children by suggesting that they are smarter, meaner and less unhappy than most grown-ups want to admit.' Nara imbues the children with many dimensions and even varied interests, implying that they have a whole world of their own. This complexity packs humor, pain and charm in almost every image.
Yoshitomo Nara is represented by The Pace Gallery, New York, NY.
The 60-year-old Yoshitomo Nara just had a huge jump for his work at auction. Last year, Sotheby’s Hong Kong set a new auction record for Nara's work, selling one of his paintings from 2000 for about $25 million. That piece, Knife Behind Back (2000), was first sold for just $20,000 in 2001.
Nara's previous record was a paltry (comparatively speaking) $4 million, a figure reached in May 2000 at Christie’s in Hong Kong. A number of other works by the artist have traded at auction in recent years in the $3 million range, but the new $25 million result places him in a lofty field inhabited by very few living artists (or historical artists, for that matter).
SELECT RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS:2015
'Yoshitomo Nara: Life is Only One', Asia Society, Hong Kong Central, China
'Yoshitomo Nara', Johnen Galerie, Berlin, Germany
'Yoshitomo Nara: Shallow Puddles', Blum & Poe, Tokyo, Japan
'Yoshitomo Nara: Greetings from a Place in My Heart', ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark
2014
'Yoshitomo Nara: Greetings from a Place in My Heart', Dairy Art Centre, London, UK
2013
'Yoshitomo Nara: a bit like you and me...', Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan
2012
'Yoshitomo Nara: a bit like you and me...', Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori City, Japan
'Yoshitomo Nara: The Little Little House in The Blue Woods', Towada Art Center, Aomori City, Japan
'Yoshitomo Nara: Prints', 8/ ART Gallery/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
'Yoshitomo Nara: a bit like you and me...', Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan
2011
'Yoshitomo Nara: Print Works', Roppongi Hills Art & Design Store Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2010
'Yoshitomo Nara: New Editions', Pace Prints, New York, NY
'Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool', Asia Society, New York, NY
'Yoshitomo Nara: Ceramic Works', Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
'Garden of Painting: Japanese Art of the 00s' (group exhibition), The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
2009
'Yoshitomo Nara + YNG: The Crated Rooms in Iceland', Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland
'Walking in My Mind' (group exhibition), Hayward Gallery, London, UK
'Yoshitomo Nara', Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
2008
'Yoshitomo Nara', Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
'Yoshitomo Nara + graf', BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
'Yoshitomo Nara', Galerie Meyer & Kainer, Vienna, Austria
'Yoshitomo Nara', Galerie Zink, Münich, Germany
2007
'Yoshitomo Nara', Johnen + Schöttle, Köln, Germany
'Yoshitomo Nara + graf', CAC Málaga, Málaga, Spain
'Yoshitomo Nara', GEM - Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Den Haag, The Netherlands
'Yoshitomo Nara + graf: BARACKE', Galerie Zink, Münich, Germany
2006
'Yoshitomo Nara + graf: A to Z', Yoshi Brick Brew House, Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan
'Yoshitomo Nara', Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
2005
'Yoshitomo Nara', Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
'Yoshitomo Nara: From the Depth of My Drawer', Rodin Gallery, Seoul, Korea
'Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens', Contemporary Art Museum, Honolulu, HI
'Yoshitomo Nara und Hiroshi Sugito: Over the Rainbow', K21 (Kunstsammlung im Ständehaus), Düsseldorf, Germany
2004
'Yoshitomo Nara und Hiroshi Sugito: Over the Rainbow', Pinakothek der Moderne, Münich, Germany
'Yoshitomo Nara und Hiroshi Sugito: somewhere...', Galerie Zink & Gegner, Münich, Germany
'Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens', Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH (traveled to Institute of Contemporay Art Philadelphia, PA; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO)
'Yoshitomo Nara: Nowhere Land', Johnen + Schöttle, Köln, Germany
'Yoshitomo Nara: From the Depth of My Drawer', Kanazu Forest of Creation Museum, Hukui, Japan
'Yoshitomo Nara', Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna, Austria
'Yoshitomo Nara: New Works 2004', Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
2003
'Yoshitomo Nara: New Drawings', Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
'Yoshitomo Nara', Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
'Yoshitomo Nara', Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
2002
'Contemporary Drawings: Eight Propositions' (group exhibition), MoMA QNS, NY
'Yoshitomo Nara', Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
2001
'Yoshitomo Nara: in those days', Hakutosha, Nagoya, Japan
'I Don't Mind, If You Forget Me', Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan (traveled to Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Ashiya City Museum of Art, Asahikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Aomori Museum of Art)
'Yoshitomo Nara: Drawings', Collette, Paris, France
'Clear For Landing', Galerie Michael Zink, Münich, Germany
2000
'Lullaby Supermarket', Santa Monica Museum of Art, CA
'Walk on', Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL