In addition to our previous previews of Takashi Murakami’s exhibition, here is a further insight into the body of works entitled “Ego”. Set to open at the Qatar Museum, the body of works combine some signature superflat pieces that have defined the Japanese artists career along with some sculptures of mass proportions and with the subject of himself for many of them you can understand the title of the exhibition. Get a further insight of the exhibition below thanks to images from Tetsuya Suzuki.

Takashi Murakami “Ego” Exhibition Preview is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Click here to view the embedded video.

Takashi Murakami “Ego” Exhibition at Qatar Museum Behind the Scenes Interview is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

In just over a week Takashi Murakami will be holding his first solo exhibition “Murakami – Ego” in the Middle East to which we now have a preview. The exhibition at Qatar Museum on February 9th will feature numerous works from 1997 to present day from the artists archive. On display will also be some new works created specifically for this show as well as Kaikai Kiki Lots of Faces and Pom will be presented in its entirety for the first time. The title is inspired by Murakami’s desire to create an exhibition that will “a dialogue with one’s own ego”.

Info: AM

Takashi Murakami “Ego” Exhibition Preview is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Dutch illustrator Mike Frederiqo has taken SpongeBob and made the iconic cartoon character into some of fashions most familiar faces. The likes of Coco Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Terry Richardson, Pharrell Williams, and Takashi Murakami have all seen themselves immortalised as a Sponge!

Source: HS

SpongeBob takes Fashion as Terry Richardson, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs… is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

An exciting issue of Clark Magazine is available now featuring two icons of diverse backgrounds and generations, with JR and Takashi Murakami coming together to great effect.

CLARK MAGAZINE has decided to enclose with its 10th year of existence with a bang and to get involved. The French magazine was eager to bring together those two artists – that most certainly are the one who most impacted the magazine’s history. And as it happens they are both – at the same time – in the Gallery Perrotin’s three spaces until 7 January 2012.

On one side, JR, 28, is exhibiting his work from 19 November 2011 in the Gallery Perrotin. This includes new photos, one art assemblage, movies as well as an art collage on the entire front of the gallery. They will all be presented as part of the exhibition “Encrages” until 7 January 2012. For Clark, JR found time to take a picture of him and Takashi Murakami in his studio “Inside Out”, posing with is now legendary background.

On the other side, Takashi Murakami, the artist with the “Superflat” style honours yet again the sacrosanct magazine cover which marks his last stay in Paris on the occasion of the tribute he is paying to Yves KLEIN since 20th October.

Clark Magazine immortalizes this meeting, through a unique and historical cover mixing both high and sub-culture. This issue includes a special 12-page with the making-of of the meeting, an interview of JR – in the middle of putting together his exhibition – in his Parisian studio.

Clark Magazine featuring JR and Takashi Murakami is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Following our preview, here is a greater look at the Christie’s x Takashi Murakami Tohoku-Pacific Earthquake Benefit Auction with the preview that took place last week. The combination of Christie’s (the global art auction house) and Takashi Murakami has seen a host of artists like Aya Takano, Yoshitomo Nara, Damient Hirst, KAWS, come together for a good cause. The benefit, which is expected to raise 5 million dollars with proceeds going to The Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Global Giving, and International Medical Corps this will go along way to help the recovery from the disaster that hit Japan in March. Takashi Murakami provides us with his account for the situation in Tohoku “The damage which resulted from the recent earthquake was great and yet, there are other disasters occurring somewhere in the world every day. If we do not address the root causes of the chaos which arises from these disasters, both natural and man- made, then our problems will continue reoccurring and their severity will only grow worse, eating further away at the heart and mind.”

Viewing took place from October 26-28 at the Gagosian Gallery, and the pre-sale exhibition will begin on November 4. The main auction is set to take place on November 9 at Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza location beginning at 9:30 a.m., and will be ceremonially opened by actor Ken Watanabe, who will read a Japanese poem in honor of those who lost their lives.

Thanks to Hypebeast for the images.

Christie’s x Takashi Murakami Tohoku-Pacific Earthquake Benefit Auction is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Takashi Murakami and Kaikai Kiki Co. have teamed up with KAWS to create this impressive piece of work for a new auction from Christie’s to benefit the victims of the tragic Tohoku-Pacific earthquake in Japan earlier this year. The Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Global Giving, and International Medical Corps will benefit from the proceeds that are expected to reach $5 million. In addition to Takashi Murakami other artists contributing to the auction include Zeng Fanzhi, Mark Grotjahn, Damien Hirst, Thomas Houseago, KAWS, Jeff Koons, Friedrich Kunath,Yoshitomo Nara, Gabriel Orozco, Anselm Reyle, Cindy Sherman, Aya Takano and Luc Tuymans while a preview will take place at the Gagosian Gallery on Wednesday, October 26 to Friday, October 28 at their Madison Avenue space in New York.

Thanks to KAWS for the info.

Takashi Murakami and KAWS for Christie’s Tohoku-Pacific Earthquake Benefit Auction is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Takashi Murakami will present a large scale exhibition of new and old works at Paris’s Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin. “Homage to Yves Klein” plays off the French artist Klein, a pioneer of Nouveau Réalisme - Murakami, known as the founder of the superflat movement’s, own style, creates a juxtaposition resulting in a unique series of works from the japanese artist. Check out the preview and visit Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin between October 20 and January 7, 2012.

Source: Arrested Motion

Takashi Murakami “Homage to Yves Klein” at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

We previously mentioned the latest show from Takashi Murakami at London’s Gagosian Gallery and now we are can give a closer look at the erotic portion of the exhibit. Murakami explores and questions the validity the traditional nude figure drawings have in art by recasting and rendering figures in manga style to exaggerated portions. Nurse Ko2 and 3-Meter Girl are the focal points of the exhibit as the life-sized yet absurdly proportioned figures provide an gateway into the conversations Murakami provoked with each composition.

Takashi Murakami’s Erotic Show at Gagosian London is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Murakami might be best known as an integral part of the “superflat” movement, but what I find most interesting about the Japanese artist is that very early on he branched the gap of making art understood and accessable by the masses. Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris are hosting a month long retrospective look at Takashi Murakami’s limited edition prints, there are 160 prints on show, all created between 2001 and 2011.

Galerie Perrotin / 76 Rue de Turenne, 75003 / Paris / France

All Artworks (C)Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Source: AM

Takashi Murakami at Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Takashi Murakami will present a new show at London’s Gagosian gallery, this comes after designing the Summer Solstice “doodle” for Google. The exhibition will present a series of paintings and sculptures that explore human sexuality and its expression in Japanese animation and comic books. The exhibition will open next week and run through until the 5th of August. Until then check out the sneak peak of two works from Murakami’s that are set to feature.

Source: HB

Takashi Murakami at Gagosian Gallery London is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Japan’s most celebrated contemporary artist, Takashi Murakami, has been commissioned by Google to decorate it’s iconic logo. The same prestige has been thrust upon the likes of Jackson Pollock and Norman Rockwell, and as you know the logo is frequently changed to celebrate special events, or days around the world. Murakami’s work was commissioned in order to celebrate summer solstice, June 21st. Entitled The First Day of Summer, the superflat movement founder has decided to enlist the help of his Kaikai and Kiki characters as well as his multicolored flowers.

Info: Arrested Motion

Takashi Murakami Google Icon is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Probably not 3 names you’re used to seeing together, well maybe 2 of them fit in a traditional sense, but then, this is a very different type of exhibition.

Galerie Perrotin hosts Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Takashi Murakami ‘A History of Editions’ which opens June 24 and runs through to July 30, 2011.

The exhibition brings together multiples by Duchamp, Beuys and Murakami who devoted a large part of their artistic creation to the production of editions (as opposed to unique works). Other 20th century artists devoted themselves to this practice like Andy Warhol of course, but also Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, etc. in the line of the Fluxus movement, which advocated an art of action that was democratic and anchored in life but also Keith Haring, Vasarely and others, which would make an ideal exhibition around this theme.

The avant-garde of the end of the 19th century and beginning of 20th (the Nabis, Matisse, Miro, Munch…) also seized hold of the most varied techniques including prints, which made it possible to circulate new art that was not being seen in official salons, to a more open public. Engraving has held a special place since its invention, accompanying the development of printing and the circulation of ideas through book illustration. It allowed the eclosion of darker or more libertine series of iconography that criticized power and the established order (Los Caprichos of Goya, the erotic engravings of Giulio Romano, etc.). Founded in 1797, the Chalcography of the Louvre has a collection of more than 13,000 engraving plates and regularly invites contemporary artists to make new ones for unlimited printing.

Marcel Duchamp naturally resorted to multiples because of his preoccupation with authorship and so redefined the notion of uniqueness. He was the first to look upon print series as unique works. He thus produced 275 portable retrospective museums of his work he called “Box in a Valise” that were ubiquitous being present in the most celebrated collections around the world (“Everything important I have done can be held in a small valise.” M.D.). Beyond that, he allowed his imagination to run free on all kinds of media like posters, invitations, telegrams, enamelled plates, etc.

Joseph Beuys extended this approach by adding social and political speculations through the continuous production of 567 multiples from 1965 to 1986, to which numerous post cards were added. The Reinhard Schlegel Collection unveils an original collection of this ‘Enlarged Art’ that includes manifestos, political concepts and forms of language. They thus escaped the art market at the time. “Each edition has the character of a kernel of condensation for me on which a multitude of things can settle. […] I am interested by the transmission of physical vehicles in the form of editions, because I am passionate about spreading ideas. The objects are only in relation to my intelligible ideas.” J.B.

A Doctor in Nihonga painting from the University of Arts in Tokyo, Murakami developed a unique protean style of the most modern techniques associated with the precision and virtuosity of traditional Japanese art and that of the Ukiyo-e engraving (pictures of the floating world) in particular. Inspired by Manga and Kawai (cuteness) culture, his irresistible world is peopled by monstrous and charming characters, facetious descendents of past myths. His theory of the Superflat aesthetic, which he introduced in 2001, attempts to blur the frontiers between popular art and grand art. The absence of perspective, the two-dimensionality of ancient art, filters in to every support – painting, sculpture, prints/silk-screens, wallpaper, animation films and accessories. He has even created his figures on T-shirts (Hiropon) or giant balloons (Mr.Dob) before having them appear in his paintings, sculptures and films; quite the reverse of the Hollywood system that sells spinoff products after a blockbuster has come out.

The art market has tended to underestimate these productions without taking the artists’ generosity into consideration in offering their art to the greatest number of people. Indeed, the profitability of a print is uncertain. Murakami’s prints for example have high production costs tied to the number of colours used, though the artist wants their selling price to remain reasonable. Though Duchamp, Beuys and Murakami succeeded in convincing collectors that editions were an integral part of their artistic production with the underlying idea of “art for all”, Dali and Bernard Buffet on the other hand got their fingers burnt.

”Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Takashi Murakami, A History of Editions“ is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Kaikai Kiki and Volta Art Fair have announced a special exhibition by Kaikai Kiki Gallery at VOLTA7 in Basel, Switzerland. Spread over two locations, the exhibition will offer guests a wide-ranging mix of art, live entertainment, and charity efforts. This event marks the European debut of a new generation of young Japanese artists, many of whom have received personal mentoring from Takashi Murakami himself.

As a function of this training, the artists were provided space at Kaiki Kiki’s Miyoshi Studio, where they have engaged in an intensive period of production and conscious self-exploration, aimed ultimately at helping each of them discover their own personal voice. The project marks a new phase in Kaikai Kiki’s efforts to promote Japanese art abroad.

In addition to this line-up of new faces, the Gallery will offer works by established artists like Chinatsu Ban,
as well as video installations by the acclaimed ultra-technologist collective Team-Lab. The artwork will be bolstered by live painting and other on-site entertainment from the artists themselves, providing a level of spectacle that is sure to liven up the fair for all.

Lastly, the booth will play host to the latest iteration of Kaikai Kiki’s New Day Charity Project. New Day is an initiative begun by Murakami that encourages artists to contribute works in response to the massive earthquake that recently hit northern Japan. A special installation will be on display, featuring the various artworks that have been received from around the world.

Exhibiting Artists: Chinatsu Ban, Cyon, Gemi, Haruka Makita, JNTHED, Keiko Moritsugu, Keisin, Maelie Makuno, mi, Nishinoda, ob, Peppe, Rei Tanaka, Seira Fukuda, Shikatoko,Team-Lab, Yoshiyasu Tamura

June 13 – June 18, 2011
Dreispitzhalle, Dreispitz Areal, Tor / Gate 13, Helsinki Strasse 5, CH-4142, Münchenstein, Basel, Switzerland

Kaikai Kiki Gallery at VOLTA7 is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Here is a great little piece from Mike Leavitt, who has created an impressive new figure with the subject renowned Japanese superflat artist Takashi Murakami. The piece combines the head and shoulders of Murakami with one of the artists more well known pieces of work as the body and stands at 10″ tall. The figure is available from Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York City through a special request.

Takashi Murakami Toy Figure by Mike Leavitt is a post from: SLAMXHYPE