Yashimoto Nara

Born in 1959, Yashimoto Nara is one of Japan’s contemporary masters who has largely remained away from any major group and established his own style of pop art. Unlike most of Japanese contemporary artists are obsessed with technology and robotics, Nara remains largely unaffected. His style pop art is also different from the works of the Kaikai Ki artists as his works are not just decorative or fantasy based, but also have serious undercurrents.

Nara’s most works include children’s faces. But the children look angry or cunning often brandishing a small weapon or some disturbing substance. Nara says that every one has a child in oneself and he portrays that child in the adult. Nara’s works thus show what Japan is undergoing these days, how Japanese culture is getting violent and disturbing in the wake of technical explosion. It is a telling on the contemporary psychological chaos that is Japan these days.

While many of Japan’s artists are exploring the various aspects of technological advancements and their impacts on society, Nara is probably the only major artist in Japan today who explores the psychological traits of modern Japan.

Yashimoto Nara had initially started as a painter, but in course of time he had started producing doll-like porcelain sculptures, commercial merchandise all with his painting-images.

Yashimoto Nara lives and works in Tokyo.