To me, religions are a narrative…Natural catastrophes, earthquakes, are things caused by nature. Such chaos is natural, but we have to make sense of it somehow, and so we had to invent these stories. That is what I wanted to paint.
—Takashi Murakami
The Gagosian Gallery of New York presents “In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow”, a major exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by Takashi Murakami.
Combining classical techniques with the latest technologies, Murakami moves freely within an ever-expanding field of aesthetic issues and cultural inspirations.
Since the devastating Great Tōhoku Earthquake of 2011, Murakami has explored Japanese art produced in response to historic natural disasters.
In totemic sculptures representing demons, religious sites, and self-portraits; and paintings that conflate classical Japanese techniques with Abstract Expressionist tropes, science-fiction, manga, and Buddhist and Shinto imagery, Murakami investigates the role of faith amid the inexorable transience and trauma of existence.
Gagosian Gallery – 555 West 24th Street – New York, NY 10011
