ART-PRESENTATION: Yoshitomo Nara-After All I’m Cosmic Dust

Yoshitomo Nara is among the most beloved Japanese artists of his generation. His widely recognizable portraits of menacing figures reflect the artist’s raw encounters with his inner self. A peripatetic traveler, Nara’s oeuvre takes inspiration from a wide range of resources: memories of his childhood, music, literature, studying and living in Germany (1988–2000), exploring his roots in Japan, Sakhalin, and Asia, and modern art from Europe and Japan. Spanning over 30 years Yoshitomo Nara views the artist’s work through the lens of his longtime passion, music.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Pace Gallery Archive

Yoshitomo Nara presents  “After all I’m cosmic dust” a solo exhibition of never-before-seen alongside personal items related to the artist’s process and inspiration. The exhibition coincides with the release of the artist’s first substantial monograph, Nara rose to prominence in the late 1990s, becoming internationally known for his emotionally complex paintings of children set against monochromatic backgrounds. His signature style is expressed in many other mediums, including sculpture, photography, ceramics and installation, but it is his drawings that form the foundation for his practice. “Looking back to when I was little. . . I was able to draw whatever I wanted with a pencil. . . For me, this turned out to be the point of origin for all my work, and it is a practice that I continue to this day. . . I have been drawing as though I were breathing. Or taking notes. Or thinking. That’s been my past thirty years”. The exhibition  provides insight into drawing as the center of Nara’s creative world. Combining colored pencil with acrylic paint, his spontaneous drawings  portray children in a range of moods and capture the instinctive energy crucial to Nara’s expression of his thoughts, emotions and dreams. Nara makes his drawings anywhere and at any time and as a result they embody a freedom that is vital to him. He pins these works on his studio walls, places them in drawers or piles them high on his desk. Often much later, he returns to them to tap into memories that he will then channel into new paintings and sculptures. The personal nature of Nara’s art distances it from the sleek, technophilic and mass-produced aesthetics of Superflat, a Japanese style that emerged in the early 2000s. Nara’s more recent works suggest a return to his childhood. Although he has gained international acclaim and is involved in projects with global reach, he maintains strong ties to his home in the north of Japan. In addition to presenting approximately twenty works, the exhibition features two large-scale drawings that Nara made while attending Tobiu Camp, an annual music and arts festival in Hokkaido that celebrates the onset of autumn as well as the camp’s environmental work protecting this remote region. Here, artists and musicians join together, regardless of their status, to share their different projects or simply play. Nara’s drawings are inspired by the spirit of community and he channels a connective empathy that is at the heart of his art.

Info: Pace Gallery, 68 Park Place, East Hampton, Duration: 3-19/7/20, Days & Hours: by appointment only, www.pacegallery.com