Yoshitomo Nara

Nara's artistic repertoire encompasses painting, drawing, photography, large-scale installations, and sculptures in ceramic, bronze, and fiber-reinforced plastic. 

Biography of Yoshitomo Nara

Yoshitomo Nara, born in 1959 in Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan, is a pioneering figure in contemporary art. He graduated from Aichi University of the Arts with a master’s degree in 1987 and continued his studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1988 to 1993.

Nara settled in Cologne in 1994, a period that significantly influenced his art as he synthesized Japanese and Western popular culture. His notable works from this time include "Nachtwandern" (1994), "Pony Tail" (1995), and "Haze Days" (1998).

In 2000, Nara returned to Japan, and his seminal solo exhibition, "I DON’T MIND, IF YOU FORGET ME," was held at the Yokohama Museum of Art in 2001. This exhibition showcased his multidisciplinary approach, including stuffed animals, sculptures, paintings, and drawings. Notable works included "Fountain of Life" (2001) and "Time of My Life" (2001).

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011 deeply affected Nara, influencing his subsequent works such as "Milky Lake/Thinking One" (2011) and "Thinker" (2017).

His recent solo exhibitions include "The Bootleg Drawings 1988 – 2023" at Pace Gallery in Geneva (2023), "The Beginning Place" at Aomori Museum of Art in Japan (2023), "Ceramic Works" at Pace Gallery in Seoul (2023), "All My Little Words" at The Albertina Modern in Vienna (2023), and many more. 

Yoshitomo Nara's Art Style

His distinctive style, portraying children across a spectrum of emotional complexities from resistance and rebellion to quietude and contemplation, celebrates the introspective freedom of imagination and individuality. His most renowned and frequently depicted subjects are "big-headed girls" characterized by piercing eyes.

Nara’s paintings capture a fleeting interplay between figure and ground, achieved through multiple layers of subtly varied, subdued pigments applied throughout the painting process. This technique creates a sense of the figure either emerging from or floating within a space that seems to transcend the constraints of time.

In his later work, t created after The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011, marked a discernible thoughtfulness and pathos that explored themes such as impermanence, temporality, beauty, and the present moment.