Profile

Takashi Murakami is one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking Japanese artists of the 1990s. His work ranges from cartoony paintings to quasi-minimalist sculptures to giant inflatable balloons to performance events to factory-produced watches, T-shirts, and other products, many embellished with his signature character, Mr. DOB.


The paintings, sculptures, and balloons of Takashi Murakami are colorful and attractive, and accessible in their reference to lovable cartoon characters. As an artist, Murakami questions the lines drawn between East and West, past and present, high art and popular culture. Not stopping with the production of artworks, Murakami shocked the world with his entrepreneurial collaboration with Louis Vuitton, when he challenged the divide between art and commerce. As a curator, Murakami challenges our concepts of history and culture. With his three-part Superflat exhibition which toured in major museums in America and Europe, he introduced Japanese artists, animators, and cartoonists to an international audience and challenged the rigid categorization of “art.”


Dates

1962, Born in Tokyo, Japan


Education

1993 Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, P.h.D

1988 Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, M.F.A.

1986 Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, B.F.A.


Recent Solo Exhibitions

2009

Gagosian Gallery, London, England


2008

Installation at Design Miami, Miami, FL

Takashi Murakami: Prints "My First Art" Series, Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo

“Davy Jone’s Tear,” Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA

“Oval Buddha at IBM Building,” IBM Building, New York, NY


2007

"©MURAKAMI," Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany


"Tranquility of the heart, torment of the flesh — open wide the eye of the heart, and nothing is invisible," Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY


2006

"The Pressure Point of Painting," Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France


2005

"Kaikai Kiki Exhibition," Aoi Gallery, Osaka, Japan

"Takashi Murakami Print show" Mizuho Oshiro Gallery, Kagoshima, Japan

“T1: Takashi Murakami," Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy

Installation at Roppongi Hills, Tokyo, Japan