Yoshitomo Nara (奈良 美智 ,Nara Yoshitomo, born 1959 in Hirosaki, Japan) is one of the most influential artists to emerge from Japan during the Pop art movement of the nineties. Yoshitomo Nara's [...]

Yoshitomo Nara (奈良 美智 ,Nara Yoshitomo, born 1959 in Hirosaki, Japan) is one of the most influential artists to emerge from Japan during the Pop art movement of the nineties. Yoshitomo Nara's paintings and sculpture of stylized cartoon children and animals evoke a range of memories from childhood, "both sad and fantastic." Since his initial U.S. solo exhibition at Blum & Poe Gallery he has had one-man shows at the Institut fur Moderne Kunst Nurnberg, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Yokohama Museum of Art. His work was recently included in "Super Flat" at the MOCA Gallery at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood and at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. He continues to live and work in Japan.