Published by Pace Publishing. Text by Simon Reynolds, Stephanie Rosenthal.
From the outset of his career, Japanese painter and sculptor Yoshitomo Nara (born 1959) has fruitfully explored the relationship between art and the space in which it is placed. At the cornerstone of Nara's recent exhibition in Pace's London gallery was the most recent product of his ongoing study: a new multiroom installation that was reworked from an earlier project titled London Mayfair House. Borrowing its title from the Ancient Greco-Roman term for a public art salon, Pinacoteca (2021) is a specially crafted, tiny, homelike structure that imitates an exhibition space. On the internal walls, the artist hung new paintings on wood and canvas as well as drawings on paper, used envelopes and cardboard boxes. On the external walls, which have been directly painted onto, Nara hung new paintings that are stylistically simpler and more graphic than the works inside the installation. Yoshitomo Nara: Pinacoteca presents a close look at the structure, as well as the artist’s recent paintings, sculpture and works on cardboard also displayed in the exhibition. An essay by acclaimed music writer Simon Reynolds explores the relationship of music to Nara’s artistic production, and an essay by curator Stephanie Rosenthal dives deep into the role of built environments in the artist's oeuvre.
Published by Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Edited with text by Mika Yoshitake. Text by Michael Govan, Yoshitomo Nara.
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. 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 35 years (1985 to 2020), this book—which accompanies the major career retrospective organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—presents the full range of Nara’s work. It also examines the artist’s work through the lens of his longtime passion—music—and features “liner notes” written by the artist about various albums in his personal collection of 1960s and 70s folk and rock albums, published in English for the first time.
The book features paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramic figures, an installation that re-creates his drawing studio, and never-before-exhibited idea sketches that reflect the artist’s empathic eye, shining a light on Nara’s conceptual process. Readers will see the evolution of a dynamic artist who has become more contemplative with age.
Yoshitomo Nara was born in 1959 in Aomori, Japan, and graduated with a master's degree from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music and later studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In the fall of 2010, the Asia Society in New York presented the first major New York exhibition of his work. He is represented by Pace Gallery and Blum & Poe.
Published by Blum & Poe. Text by Shigemi Takahashi.
Shallow Puddles brims with full-color, detailed images of Yoshitomo Nara’s (born 1959) titular series. These paintings are executed on shallow circular dishes, covered with small square patches of canvas, and seemingly create portals to a world inundated with water. Depicted on each is a solitary figure that, like those in many of the artist’s iconic paintings, holds the viewer’s gaze with its large, full eyes, some even with averted eyes. Ground and figure are the main components of each work, yet the artist’s painterly execution calls attention to his manipulation of color, form and composition to create an image that transcends traditional portraiture. Included is an essay by Shigemi Takahashi, curator at Aomori Museum of Art, who has worked closely with the artist on numerous projects.
Published by Crymogea. Text by Markús Andrésson, Gudmundur O. Magnússon, Hafthór Yngvason, Jón Proppé.
Easily one of the most important Japanese artists of the recent past, Yoshitomo Nara (born 1959) has rocketed to worldwide fame for his darkly whimsical figures that put a creepy twist on childhood ingenuousness. For his 2009 exhibition at the Reykjavik Art Museum, Nara presented his works within the wooden shipping crates in which they had been transported to the museum. Pictures were hung on the outside of the crates, and figures lurked within their interior nooks. This beautifully produced board book records and continues the show's themes of containment and transportation: it features windows that can be opened to reveal the youthful figures ensconced within their confinements, waiting to be freed by the participation of the reader.
Yoshitomo Nara was born in 1959, in Aomori, Japan. He is one of the leading artists of Japan's Neo Pop movement. His drawings and paintings are informed by a range of influences, from manga and anime to punk rock. He has also worked in sculpture, ceramic and large-scale installation. In the fall of 2010, the Asia Society in New York presented the first major New York exhibition of his work.
PUBLISHER Crymogea
BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 9.25 x 8.25 in. / 26 pgs / 56 color / 47 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 10/31/2014 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2013 p. 24
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789935420183TRADE List Price: $60.00 CDN $79.00
Yoshitomo Nara: Drawings focuses on the internationally acclaimed Japanese artist's prolific drawing output of the past 30 years. Rendered in colored pencil and acrylic, Nara's drawings are executed on a variety of paper types, such as found envelopes, stationery and inexpensive lined sheets, and deftly fuse Japanese visual traditions such as manga and anime with Western modernism and elements of American pop culture. The artist's ever-increasing cast of childlike, vulnerable but sinister characters has won him a devoted following around the world. With an abundance of color plates, Yoshitomo Nara: Drawings includes reproductions of early works never publicly exhibited and omitted from the artist's catalogue raisonné, as well as an essay by Masue Kato. The volume is published in conjunction with a large-scale exhibition of Nara's paintings, drawings and sculptures at Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, in Spring 2014.
Yoshitomo Nara was born in 1959, in Aomori, Japan. He is one of the leading artists of Japan's Neo Pop movement. His drawings and paintings are informed by a range of influences, from manga and anime to punk rock. He has also worked in sculpture, ceramic and large-scale installation. In the fall of 2010, the Asia Society in New York presented the first major New York exhibition of his work.
Published by Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland. Edited by Larry Gilman. Foreword by Jill Snyder. Text by Kristin Chambers, Josh Kun, Ingrid Schaffner, Billie Joe Armstrong, Carrie Brownstein, John Doe, Dave Eggers, Yoshitomo Nara, Lars Frederickson, Debbie Harry, Leonard Nimoy, Ozmatli.
Featuring essays and short fiction by a range of contemporary writers, punk musicians and cultural critics, as well as writings by Yoshitomo Nara himself, the cult artist's book Nothing Ever Happens--available through D.A.P. for the first time--examines both Nara's work and the subjects it addresses. Readers are invited into a world where emotions are not expected to be filtered, make-believe is not equated with lunacy and the world is both fantastic and terrifying. One of the most important and best-loved Japanese contemporary artists, Nara distinctively transcends a national style to offer a universal psychological narrative of childhood. In this beautifully designed book with cool paper changes and pitch-perfect image selection, Nara's work is paired with writings by Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, writer Dave Eggers, Deborah Harry (Blondie), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) and others of equally interesting stature.
PUBLISHER Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 8.25 x 10 in. / 96 pgs / illustrated throughout.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 2/1/2008 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2008 p. 143
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9781880353257TRADE List Price: $29.95 CDN $35.00
Published by Verlag Fur Moderne Kunst Nurnberg. Essays by Stephan Trescher and Banana Yoshimoto.
At first sight, the childlike figures for which Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara is now famous seem altogether cute and appealing. On closer examination his creations are robust, angry and vulnerable creatures, standing up defiantly to the world of adults--self-confident, stubborn and sometimes violent. Nara's work is influenced by Japanese comic books but he is unique in the contemporary art scene for tapping into horror through the medium of the innocent child--this is particularly poignant in Japan's controlled society of rigid language and social structures, especially considering recent shockingly violent crimes in Japan involving children as the aggressors. Nara's work instills the viewer with a juxtaposition of the innocence of children and the evil nature of humanity, or the fall from grace. Like Kurt Cobain's music, Nara's Pop art, too, aims to lend expression to his generation's concerns, encouraging it to meet the constraints of high achievement. Self-determination, individuality, and freedom are themes that infuse Nara's voice that is clearly heard in Japan and America, where the dividing line between “low” and “high” culture is less stringently drawn than in Europe. In addition to Nara's signature paintings, sculptures, and drawings; (poems and diary entries by the artist); this 204-page book includes texts by the art critic Stephan Trescher and the Japanese cult author Banana Yoshimoto.
PUBLISHER Verlag Fur Moderne Kunst Nurnberg
BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 8.5 x 9.5 in. / 204 pgs / 264 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 3/15/2005 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2005 p. 105
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783933096593TRADE List Price: $50.00 CDN $60.00
Yoshitomo Nara
Yoshitomo Nara: Shallow Puddles
Yoshitomo Nara & YNG: The Crated Rooms in Iceland
Yoshitomo Nara: Drawings
Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens
Yoshitomo Nara: Lullaby