Murakami: Unfamiliar People

One of Japan's leading contemporary artists, Takashi Murakami's work has been distinguished by a wide-ranging practice that encompasses not only fine art, but fashion, consumer products, curation, and entertainment. As founder of the Superflat movement, Murakami's artworks are larger than life, boldly colored, and buoyant, with a pop sensibility that draws inspiration from anime and manga. His familiar happy flowers and kawaii characters have become branded icons for the artist's production and management company, Kaikai Kiki, Ltd. Beyond the cheerful images that have defined Murakami's career lurk darker manifestations-the sharp-toothed, multi-eyed monsters that have increasingly become this artist's vehicle for expressing the effects of rampant consumerism, human fallibility, and media-induced anxiety. Murakami: Unfamiliar People-Swelling of Monsterized Human Ego explores this theme in works from the last decade, a time of intense environmental, political, and social upheaval in the world at large. Using humor and playful distortion, he portrays the monsters that alternately haunt us and offer diversion, solace, and protection from chaos. Lately, the COVID pandemic has unleashed its own demons, prompting new images of estrangement and NFT art that speaks to the rise of replicants and cyborgs that inhabit virtual realms