About the artwork
Japanese artist Takashi Murakami's work is immediately recognisable for its popping, candy-like colors and anime-esque aesthetic. This work features his familiar playful imagery of oversized and blinking eyes, with one pair of eyes being that of his key character, Kiki. This impish character reappears with its counterpart Kaikai frequently in Murakami’s work both as the artist’s spiritual guardians as well as the official mascots of his production company. This work is rendered in Murakami’s signature style, Superflat, which combines graphic practices of contemporary Japanese culture with flattening print and painting traditions of its rich past.
About the artist
Takashi Murakami was born in 1962 in Tokyo and is a prolific contemporary Japanese artist of international renown. Working with fine art mediums (painting and sculpture) as well as conventional commercial mediums (fashion,
merchandise, and animation), the artist is known for blurring the line between high
and low art. He coined his style 'superflat', which describes the aesthetic
characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of post-war Japanese culture and society. Murakami’s works have been exhibited all
over the world, including prestigious institutions such as the Guggenheim
Museum in Bilbao, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Fondation Cartier pour
l'art Contemporain, Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.