After completing his master's degree at the Department of Painting at Aichi University of the Arts, Yoshitomo Nara moved to Germany and studied at the National Art Academy of Düsseldorf. He actively engaged in creative activities in both Europe and Japan. His solo exhibition titled In The Deepest Puddle, held in Tokyo in 1995, gained recognition in Japan. Nara's style of painting, characterised by its seemingly simple and cute appearance, captivated audiences within and beyond the art world. The distinctive feature of his work, the ‘cute looking children with strong glaring eyes’ became widely recognised as Nara’s trademark. The human figures depicted in his paintings possess a sense of purity and innocence, yet also exude a solitary and enigmatic atmosphere, adding depth, narrative, and poetic lyricism to his works. Nara’s artistic expression merges subculture with art, successfully blurring boundaries and presenting new possibilities in figure painting. He has garnered attention as a groundbreaking figure painting artist, not only in Japan but also internationally. Nara is regarded as one of the prominent figures representing contemporary art in Japan, having held retrospective exhibitions in renowned museums in the US, the UK, China, and Japan. His works are included in the collections of prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles).
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