TAKASHI MURAKAMI IN WONDERLAND

Perrotin Shanghai is pleased to present an exhibition by Japanese
artist Takashi Murakami. The show will be the artist’s first solo show in
mainland China and will feature several new works created for the
exhibition that encompass many of the themes and characters that
have come to define his career. This presentation of work also marks
the artist’s largest gallery show to date in Asia.
Murakami’s exhibition, which is the culmination of a collaboration
spanning a quarter of a century between the artist and Emmanuel
Perrotin, will bring to Shanghai new and recent creations that are of a
wide range of dimensions, from single-panel canvases to a
monumental, ambitious, 15-meter-long acrylic painting mounted on an
aluminum frame, as well as a towering 250 cm sculpture. The material,
platinum leaf, is applied to several works in the exhibition.
Even before competing his initial artistic training in ink painting,
Murakami made it his purpose to unsettle the status quo in Japan’s art
world, primarily by referencing contemporary Japanese conditions and
sensibilities. As the artist once said, “On one side, I am trying to show
my compatriots what ‘art’ means on a global scale. And on the other,
to the foreigners, I am trying to show the essence of our current
culture.” 1 During a brief stint in New York in the 1990s, Murakami
grappled with his place—and the position of Japanese or East Asian
artists—among the contemporary art system, particularly New York’s
art world. This led to a creative decision to blur the line between fine
art and subculture, and to mold a new identity as a Japanese artist.
This ideal and Murakami’s spirit of artistic rebellion are best embodied
by Mr. DOB, a whimsical character that has been appearing in the artist’s work for over two decades and one that plays a significant role
throughout the exhibition. Through several different manifestations of
Mr. DOB, the exhibition is a visual journey through the evolution of the
character. Mr. DOB’s name is lifted from the Japanese slang expression
dobojite, which means “why?” The icon’s sharp teeth, cartoon eyes,
and murine ears are inspired by many sources and together, these
features exemplify Murakami’s inspiration drawn from youth culture,
specifically anime and manga. Though Mr. DOB’s appearance
constantly changes in the artist’s many works—at times playful and
innocent, at times menacing with fangs bared—he remains instantly
recognizable, often with the letters of his name emblazoned across his
face and ears. More recently, Murakami has said that Mr. DOB is the
artist’s self-portrait after 20 years of “working together,” 2 with the
figure acting as a vessel through which Murakami can channel his
artistic struggles.
Other familiar patterns in the artist’s oeuvre will be included in the
exhibition. Though Murakami has said in the past that he initially “didn’t
like flowers” and that their smell and shape made him “almost
physically sick,” 3 they eventually became an integral part of his work.
He embraced the beaming, overjoyed flora and adopted it as one of
his emblems when preparing for entrance exams for the Tokyo National
University of Fine Arts and Music 4 and after spending nearly a decade
teaching prep-school students how to draw flowers. Now, the iconic
candy-colored petals surrounding smiling faces are one of his most
often employed motifs. This can be seen in several works throughout
the exhibition, showcasing the progression of this concept from
canvas to 3D sculpture.
Also included in the extensive showcase of Murakami’s work are
several museum-quality paintings, including artistically complex and
post-apocalyptic themed canvas works which command an audience
based on the philosophical subject matter if not due to their scale and
microscopic details alone. The gallery will also feature a special
Takashi Murakami merchandise room – the first of its kind in China –
full of exclusive goodies, plush flowers and other accessories.
Born in 1962 and raised in Tokyo, Takashi Murakami graduated from
the Tokyo National University of the Fine Arts and Music in 1993 with a PhD in nihonga (literally, “Japanese painting”), and then proceeded
to explore more contemporary visual styles. He coined the term
Superflat to describe the postwar aesthetics and culture in his home
country, including its impact on consumerism and sexual fetishism—a
flattened 20th- and 21st-century Japanese society complementing a
visual perspective in traditional Japanese art, melding high and low
culture, or even shattering the distinction between the two.
In 2001, Murakami set up the art production company and artist
management agency Kaikai Kiki, employing many younger artists to
assist him in making his wide-ranging projects come to life. This act
transformed his art into merchandise and a brand, in response to his
own frustration regarding the lack of an art market in Japan during the
early stages of his career. Murakami’s direction also allows for
incredible detail to be inserted into large-scale works that would
otherwise be impossible to create by a single artist, expanding the
possibilities of his creative endeavors and output. He also continues
to act as a curator and mentor to several Japanese artists, whom he
has been known to discover on social media.
Aside from fine arts, Murakami also engages commercial media, such
as fashion, animation and movies. He has collaborated with French
couture brand Louis Vuitton and Virgil Abloh, as well as musical artists
Kanye West, Kid Cudi and Drake, and directed the Japanese fantasy
film, Jellyfish Eyes (2013). With a prolific body of work that consists
of paintings, sculptures, screen prints, drawings, video, popular
merchandise and more, the artist’s many contributions to the
contemporary art scene have established him as one of the world’s
most recognizable cultural figures.