Saturday, December 15, 2007

Takashi Murakami at LACMA

They call him the Andy Warhol of Japan. Last week, Mona, Asha and I had the pleasure of checking out Takahi Murakami's biggest exhibit to date in the U.S. Located in the heart of Little Japan, it was the perfect day for gallery hopping.

Takashi Murakami appeared on the Tokyo art scene in the early '90s as a member of a new artistic generation referred to as "Neo Pop." By creating works which freely appropriated the icons of Japanese animation and comics, these artists brought popular, debased culture to the level of the gallery and museum. Like the Pop artists of the '60s before them, these young artists realized that a deeper understanding of who they were could be found on the surface of the everyday world in which they lived. In aligning themselves with the subculture around them, they became the first generation of artists in postwar Japan to speak for themselves in their own visual language.

Here's some pics from the exhibit:
My favorite canvases from the exhibit:


Murakami teamed up with Louis Vuitton for limited edition of purses, wallets, and other accessaries. The temporary store will stay open till the exhibit comes down in February.

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