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Takashi Murakami

Change the Rule!

September 20–November 10, 2018
Hong Kong

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Installation video

Installation view © 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view

© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view © 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view

© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view © 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view

© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view © 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view

© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view © 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view

© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view © 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view

© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view © 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Installation view

© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Works Exhibited

Takashi Murakami, The Lion of the Kingdom that Transcends Death, 2018 Acrylic on canvas mounted on aluminum frame, 59 ⅛ × 118 ⅛ inches (150 × 300 cm)© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, The Lion of the Kingdom that Transcends Death, 2018

Acrylic on canvas mounted on aluminum frame, 59 ⅛ × 118 ⅛ inches (150 × 300 cm)
© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, Celestial Flowers, 2018 Acrylic and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on wood panel, 59 ⅛ × 59 ⅛ inches (150 × 150 cm)© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, Celestial Flowers, 2018

Acrylic and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on wood panel, 59 ⅛ × 59 ⅛ inches (150 × 150 cm)
© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, Hello (Flower), 2018 Fiber-reinforced plastic, urethane paint, and stainless steel, 59 ⅛ × 59 ⅛ × 24 inches (150 × 150 × 62.3 cm); edition of 3 + 2 AP© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, Hello (Flower), 2018

Fiber-reinforced plastic, urethane paint, and stainless steel, 59 ⅛ × 59 ⅛ × 24 inches (150 × 150 × 62.3 cm); edition of 3 + 2 AP
© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, He-he-he (DOB), 2018 Fiber-reinforced plastic, urethane paint, and stainless steel, 49 × 66 ½ × 35 ¾ inches (124.4 × 168.9 × 90.8 cm); 1 of 3 unique versions + 2 AP© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, He-he-he (DOB), 2018

Fiber-reinforced plastic, urethane paint, and stainless steel, 49 × 66 ½ × 35 ¾ inches (124.4 × 168.9 × 90.8 cm); 1 of 3 unique versions + 2 AP
© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, One encounters a multitude of hardships and disasters along the way to the netherworld, yet this process allows one to take the proper form of a human being and thus attain Buddhahood, 2018 Acrylic on canvas mounted on aluminum frame, 78 ¾ × 315 inches (200 × 800 cm)© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, One encounters a multitude of hardships and disasters along the way to the netherworld, yet this process allows one to take the proper form of a human being and thus attain Buddhahood, 2018

Acrylic on canvas mounted on aluminum frame, 78 ¾ × 315 inches (200 × 800 cm)
© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, We Came to the Field of Flowers Through Anywhere Door (Dokodemo Door)!, 2018 Acrylic on canvas mounted on aluminum frame, 47 ¼ × 47 ¼ inches (120 × 120 cm)© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Takashi Murakami, We Came to the Field of Flowers Through Anywhere Door (Dokodemo Door)!, 2018

Acrylic on canvas mounted on aluminum frame, 47 ¼ × 47 ¼ inches (120 × 120 cm)
© 2018 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

About

When I manage to snatch the tail of an idea, I must then transport a fragment of it to a completely different region of my brain . . . Once a deadline is met, that region can relax, so I graft the new idea onto that relaxed region in order to nurture and grow it. This is the process I endlessly repeat, and as such, I can never see the end of it; each day of unease is followed by another, and only for a moment when a project is complete do I get to experience a modicum of liberation. As a distant result of such a thankless, humorless repetition, interesting works get made. 
—Takashi Murakami

Gagosian is pleased to present Change the Rule!, new paintings and sculptures by Takashi Murakami.

Murakami seamlessly blends commercial imagery, anime, manga, and traditional Japanese styles and subjects, revealing the themes and questions that connect past and present, East and West, technology and fantasy. His paintings, sculptures, and films are populated by repeated motifs and evolving characters of his own creation. Together with dystopian themes and contemporary references, he revitalizes narratives of transcendence in continuation of the nonconformist legacy of a group of eighteenth-century Japanese artists known as the Edo eccentrics.

Change the Rule! reveals myriad variations of Murakami’s own imagery, each combination generating new meaning. His first character, Mr. DOB, appears in pink and blue, floating over a platinum background; stares forward with wide eyes in a painted fiber-reinforced plastic sculpture; and melts and mutates in Tan Tan Bo a.k.a. Gerotan: Having vomited five viscera and six bowels along with a lump of ego, he swallows them back into his empty stomach as everything disperses into the void; along the process he starts his journey into meditation. (2018), a mural-sized painting in which DOB, with fidget-spinners for eyes, explodes with countless permutations of himself. Large cast and painted sculptures of Kaikai (a white, rabbitlike character) and Kiki (a three-eyed pink figure) further underscore Murakami’s interest in paradox, as the adjective kikikaikai describes something that is dangerous yet appealing.

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當我設法抓住靈感的尾巴,我必須將零碎的構思傳送到大腦另一個截然不同的區域……及時完成工作後,這個區域就可以放鬆,於是我能將新構思轉到放鬆區,慢慢培養。這是一個不斷重複的過程,永無止盡。焦慮不安的生活日復一日,只有在完成項目後,我才能感到一絲解放。全靠這個吃力不討好、枯燥乏味的重複過程,方可完成有趣的作品。
—村上隆

高古軒欣然呈獻「改變規則!」展覽,展出村上隆最新創作的畫作和雕塑。

村上隆將商業圖像、日本動漫、漫畫和傳統日本風格及題材完美地共冶一爐,揭示連繫古與今、東與西、科學與幻想等主題和疑問。他的畫作、雕塑及影片經常採用反覆出現的圖案和自創的特殊人物。透過結合反烏托邦主題和現代元素,村上隆探討一群在18世紀被稱為「江戶怪傑」的日本藝術家,延續他們打破規條的精神,重溫超然脫俗的主題。

「改變規則!」展覽展出一系列村上隆創意變奏的作品,每個組合也展現全新的含意。他的首個自創角色Mr. DOB以粉紅色和藍色造型登場,並在鉑金背景中飄浮,又或變成塗漆纖維加固塑膠雕塑,睜大雙眼凝視前方,而在《Tan Tan Bo 又名Gerotan: 嘔吐出五臟六腑以及一個自我,隨著一切散入虛空,他將它們吞回空腹,在這個過程中他開始了他的冥想之旅》(Tan Tan Bo a.k.a. Gerotan: Having vomited five viscera and six bowels along with a lump of ego, he swallows them back into his empty stomach as everything disperses into the void; along the process he starts his journey into meditation.,2018年)壁畫尺寸的畫作中,DOB經歷融化和變異,雙眼化為指尖陀螺,再分裂出無數變異版本。Kaikai(像兔子的白色人物)和Kiki(三眼粉紅色人物)的大型鑄造和塗漆雕塑,進一步彰顯村上隆對自相矛盾事物的興趣,因為「kikikaikai」正是形容危險而吸引的事物。

繼參與於2002和2017年在日本舉行的「多啦A夢」群展後,村上隆亦創作了多幅以此著名動漫人物為題材的畫作,多啦A夢是一隻來自未來的機械貓,是小男孩野比大雄的好朋友。在村上隆的筆下,多啦A夢與大雄在能通往任何地方的隨意門前揮手,四周滿佈五彩的花朵,打開的隨意門後是一片耀眼金色。三件多啦A夢形狀的作品呈現其背面,他的輪廓裡簇擁著微笑的花朵。

多啦A夢和大雄站在隨意門旁邊,就像一對在神話中守護佛寺入口的神獸,它們的形象源自於中國的獅子圖騰,他的根源甚至可以追溯到古埃及的獅身人面像。在《超越死亡的王國獅子》(The Lion of the Kingdom that Transcends Death,2018年)中,村上隆描繪一隻唐獅子伏在由彩色骷髏頭組成的拱橋上。另外,他的畫作《人們在前往陰界的路途中會遇到許多艱辛和災難,但這個過程迫使人們去感受生之為人的困苦,從而超渡成佛。》 (One encounters a multitude of hardships and disasters along the way to the netherworld, yet this process allows one to take the proper form of a human being and thus attain Buddhahood., 2018年)蘊含更多源自日本畫的元素:白色大象源自江戶時代藝術家伊藤若冲的作品,它在畫滿了不朽的隱士、少女、雀鳥,以及嬰兒等元素的偌大的汪洋全景圖中浮現。

村上隆於1962年生於東京,現於當地定居及工作。他的作品現藏於日本金澤21世紀美術館、首爾Leeum三星現代藝術博物館、澳洲布里斯本昆士蘭博物館、基輔PinchukArtCentre、芝加哥當代藝術博物館、洛杉磯當代藝術博物館、波士頓美術館、三藩市現代藝術博物館、明尼阿波利斯沃克藝術中心,以及紐約現代藝術博物館。近期的博物館展覽包括法國凡爾賽宮「Takashi Murakami Versailles」展覽(2010年)、多哈卡達博物館管理局「Murakami-Ego」展覽(2012年)、米蘭王宮「Arhat Cycle」展覽(2014年)、東京森美術館「Murakami: The 500 Arhats」展覽(2015年)、奧斯陸阿斯特魯普費恩利美術館「Murakami by Murakami」展覽(2017年)、紐約水牛城艾普萊特諾克思美術館「Takashi Murakami: The Deep End of the Universe」展覽、莫斯科車庫當代藝術館「Takashi Murakami. Under the Radiation Falls」展覽(2017年)、芝加哥當代藝術博物館「The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg」展覽(2017年,2018年巡展至加拿大溫哥華美術館及德州沃斯堡現代美術館)。村上隆是Kaikai Kiki Co. Ltd.的創辦人,該公司專營藝術製作及藝術管理,除了為他製作作品,也為新晉藝術家提供支援。

#村上隆

A Takashi Murakami painting of a female avatar with blue and pink hair: CLONE X #59 Harajuku-style Angel

Takashi Murakami and RTFKT: An Arrow through History

Bridging the digital and the physical realms, the three-part presentation of paintings and sculptures that make up Takashi Murakami: An Arrow through History at Gagosian, New York, builds on the ongoing collaboration between the artist and RTFKT Studios. Here, Murakami and the RTFKT team explain the collaborative process, the necessity of cognitive revolution, the metaverse, and the future of art to the Quarterly’s Wyatt Allgeier.

Takashi Murakami cover and Andreas Gursky cover for Gagosian Quarterly, Summer 2022 magazine

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2022

The Summer 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, with two different covers—featuring Takashi Murakami’s 108 Bonnō MURAKAMI.FLOWERS (2022) and Andreas Gursky’s V & R II (2022).

Takashi Murakami with works from his ceramics collection.

Murakami on Ceramics

Takashi Murakami writes about his commitment to the work of Japanese ceramic artists associated with the seikatsu kōgei, or lifestyle crafts, movement.

Takashi Murakami with his dog, Pom, Full Steam Ahead, Dark Matter in the Farthest Black Reaches of Visible Space, and Blue Flowers & Skulls (all 2012), Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., studio, Saitama, Japan, 2012

In Conversation
Takashi Murakami and Hans Ulrich Obrist

Hans Ulrich Obrist interviews the artist on the occasion of his 2012 exhibition Takashi Murakami: Flowers & Skulls at Gagosian, Hong Kong.

Takashi Murakami at LACMA

Takashi Murakami at LACMA

In a conversation recorded at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Takashi Murakami describes the process behind three major large-scale paintings, including Qinghua (2019), inspired by the motifs painted on a Chinese Yuan Dynasty porcelain vase.

“AMERICA TOO”

“AMERICA TOO”

Join us for an exclusive look at the installation and opening reception of Murakami & Abloh: “AMERICA TOO”.

News

Photo: Claire Dorn

Artist Spotlight

Takashi Murakami

December 9–15, 2020

Takashi Murakami seamlessly blends commercial imagery, anime, manga, and traditional Japanese styles and subjects, revealing the themes and questions that connect past and present, East and West, technology and fantasy. His paintings, sculptures, and films are populated by repeated motifs and evolving characters of his own creation. Together with dystopian themes and contemporary references, he revitalizes narratives of transcendence in continuation of the nonconformist legacy of a group of eighteenth-century Japanese artists known as the Edo eccentrics.

Photo: Claire Dorn