2K by Gingham - Yoshitomo Nara

Yoshitomo Nara

One of the key artists of 'Tokyo Pop' culture scene today. His works conjure up an existence of unconscious aggressive mind hidden behind an extremely pure heart. In his works, you will often find the children pictured having either glare eyes or eyes closed. The glare eyes express unconscious aggressiveness and closed eyes express being lonely and isolated so talking to itself. These expressions let viewers sharing a world of youth today that unconsciously smoldered by living in this modern but twisted and conflicted society. However, on the other hand, viewers are always healed and being in peace because those children reflect viewers' feelings of their childhood and let themselves scream instead of viewers do. 'When I create my works, I naturally take trips back and forth between myself as a grown up now and myself when I was a child,' Nara has said. He is always influenced by music. In a way, Nara is an eternal pure-hearted rock-loving boy. He also always tries to encourage youth around the world who are struggling or who are really trying to create something."