
Yoshitomo Nara
Welcome Girl Skateboard Deck, 2017
Yoshitomo Nara began painting rebellious girls in the 1990s, drawing inspiration from Japanese …

This skateboard features a reproduction of the artwork "Welcome Girl" (2017) by Japanese …

Influenced by elements of popular culture such as anime, manga, Walt Disney cartoons, and punk rock, Yoshitomo Nara creates paintings, sculptures, and drawings of adorable-yet-sinister childlike characters. Painted with simple bold lines, primary colors, and set against empty backgrounds, these small children and animals often share the canvas with text, knives, plants, and cardboard boxes, among other recurring elements. As one of the fathers and central figures of the Japanese neo-Pop movement, Nara’s work expresses the struggle to find an identity fractured by war, rapid modernization, and an omnipresent visual culture. Nara’s sculptures, made primarily from fiberglass, and his drawings on postcards, envelopes, and scraps of paper, further this exploration using the same elegance of line and simple palette as his paintings.

Yoshitomo Nara began painting rebellious girls in the 1990s, drawing inspiration from Japanese mangacartoons, Disney films, and punk rock music to imbue his characters with a mixture of innocence and defiance. The girls in Nara’s portraits can often be found playing with weapons, smoking cigarettes, or dreaming in …

This skateboard features a reproduction of the artwork "Welcome Girl" (2017) by Japanese painter, sculptor and draughtsman Yoshitomo Nara. It comes ready to hang with hardware and in a custom MoMA box.

Influenced by elements of popular culture such as anime, manga, Walt Disney cartoons, and punk rock, Yoshitomo Nara creates paintings, sculptures, and drawings of adorable-yet-sinister childlike characters. Painted with simple bold lines, primary colors, and set against empty backgrounds, these small children and animals often share the canvas with text, knives, plants, and cardboard boxes, among other recurring elements. As one of the fathers and central figures of the Japanese neo-Pop movement, Nara’s work expresses the struggle to find an identity fractured by war, rapid modernization, and an omnipresent visual culture. Nara’s sculptures, made primarily from fiberglass, and his drawings on postcards, envelopes, and scraps of paper, further this exploration using the same elegance of line and simple palette as his paintings.