Nara Yoshitomo, untitled, 2005, coloured crayon on colour etching, 30.8 x 41.2 cm.

GEM Museum
voor Actuele Kunst
Stadhouderslaan 43
The Hague
31 (0)70 - 33 811 33
Yoshitomo Nara + graf
June 2-October 28, 2007

A magical exhibition by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, in collaboration with design unit graf. The exhibition features a village brought to life with Nara’s iconic characters, turning ordinary life into art.

Nara (b. Hirosaki, 1959) is one of the best-known Japanese artists who came from the Japanese pop art movement of the 1990s, he gained worldwide regard with seductive figurative paintings, drawings and sculptures, all executed in a deliberately elementary style. The emphasis in this exhibition is on recent work, most produced for this occasion, exhibited in a singular architectural setting developed by Nara in collaboration with design collective graf.

"Super flat" is the term sometimes used to describe the deceptively simple visual strategy adopted by Nara. At first sight, the human figures and animals in his work look merely cute, but their main fascination is in the tension and aggression they conceal. Nara’s apparently innocent yet covertly menacing depictions of children seem to express an undercurrent in Japanese society, with its rigid social structures. Recent acts of shocking violence committed by children in Japan add to the topical relevance of his work.

It is probably this combination of innocence and conflict that makes Nara’s work so irresistible to the young and that, together with his general attitude to life, has led to his current cult status in Japan. As well as being an artist, Nara is also a pop musician and a designer of T-shirts, CD covers, fanzines, buttons, dolls and other lifestyle products. "I live in and with my art," he says. In his work, he draws on a medley of sources, including pop culture, comic strips, manga and other Japanese and Western artistic traditions. Between 1988 and 1993, Nara lives in Germany, where he studied as a Meisterschuler at the academy of art in Düsseldorf.

Over the last few years, Nara often collaborates on exhibitions with Japanese design collective graf. Their jointly developed concepts for compelling architectural settings enable Nara to impose his personality on the shows. The fairytale urban "experience spaces" they design are memorable in their own right. The artist constructs miniature studios, gives a peek at his weird and wonderful collections, offers sudden glimpses of murals, and displays his sculptures via "peepholes."

Nara and graf fill the entire upper floor of the GEM with structures composed of recycled building materials. The wooden sheds and lighthouse that they intend to erect in the GEM will be constructed almost entirely on-site. Members of graf worked six weeks in industrial sites in the Binckhorst, with help in preparing for the vast site-specific installation from volunteers and students from The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art (KABK),

Yoshitomo Nara, Harmless Kitten, Acrylic on canvas, 1996, 59 x 55".

Yoshitomo Nara, Light My Fire, Wood, acrylic, cotton, 2001, 188 x 73 cm.

 

Yoshitomo Nara, There is No Place Like Home, Acrylic on canvas, 1995, 16.25 x 19.75.