Mr.

Mr.’s vivid, chaotic, cartoon-like compositions take aesthetic cues from the Japanese otaku subculture, which comprises manga and anime fanatics. Like fellow Superflat artists such as Takashi Murakami, Mr. combines elements of high and low culture as he examines Japanese society at large. Since graduating from Tokyo’s Sokei Academy of Fine Art and Design in the mid-1990s, Mr. has been the subject of exhibitions in Tokyo, Paris, New York, Hong Kong, and beyond. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, and Daegu Art Museum in South Korea have all collected his work. Following the 2011 Japanese tsunami and Fukushima reactor meltdown, Mr. began a series of material experiments—he incorporated rough abstract brushwork into his paintings and even burned, trampled, and tore his canvases.