Yoshitomo Nara

With his defiant portraits of children and animals with large, melancholic eyes, which appear simultaneously sweet and sinister, the Japanese Neo-Pop artist Yoshitomo Nara is a pioneering figure in Contemporary art. Endearing and unsettling, he has gained a cult following around the world for his unique visual language, which meditates on universal themes of identity, isolation, rebellion and spirituality while drawing on influences as diverse as manga, traditional Japanese theatrical masks, punk rock and American comic books. With a wide-ranging practice that encompasses painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and installation, the artist never set out to create art, but we are extremely glad he did.

A leading figure in the Superflat art movement - now considered a staple of postmodern art - alongside his contemporary Takashi Murakami, even when he was studying art at the Aichi University of the Arts in Japan, Nara was still not sure he wanted to be a painter. Continuing his artistic education at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, he settled in Cologne in 1994, where he became fascinated with Neo-Expressionism and punk rock. “I was a foreigner, and I had no language skills, so I felt very much isolated,” he has said of this time. “It reminded me of who I am and helped me rediscover myself.” On his return to Japan in 2000, Nara hosted his germinal solo exhibition at the Yokohama Museum of Art, titled ‘I Don’t Mind if you Forget Me’, named after a Morrissey song.