As with most things involving Takashi Murakami these days, or this decade rather, the scene at the opening for his newest solo show, GYATEI², that we attended last week was... lively? Packed? Celebrity-attended? Grand? Bold? Experimental? All of the above? As Murakami has ascended into the 21st Centuries "It" artist, the one defining arts terms in the pop-culture lexicon, his art shows become more and more like events. But in these events, there is one thing that we forget: the craft of which his studio makes these iconic and historical paintings and sculptures. And Takashi's latest show, GYATEI², now on view at Gagosian Beverly Hills through April 13, 2019, features some of his most famed characters mixed with some new experiments that caught our eye.
What Murakami has perfected in recent years is the way our digital lives have seeped into our reality. How our personas and ideas of selfhood are inflated on social media to the point that our actual selfhood almost requires acting. Murakami's blending now of high and low culture, how he reimagines his iconic flowers or Mr DOB characters, feels like a perfect dialogue with what an artist means to a digital world. His characters have become more playful and mature, but in their repetition, in their almost sinister happiness, there is this darkness about how they are replicated.
"I feel like people tend to look at a painting and think, 'OK, one artist paints a painting,'" Murakami said of his new work. "As if the condition remains the same ten years ago, three years ago, and now. But . . . the way I create the work constantly evolves. Especially in the past few years, we’ve been able to use a lot of the 3-D modeling programs, so the way I can grasp and understand forms has drastically changed and evolved. . . Artistic expression really has to do with technique, and how you can actually realize ideas."
And in his technique, Murakami has built an empire that continues to bridge the gap between pop-culture, fashion, music, art, design and, in many ways, social media and celebrity. How we share culture between ourselves. And as all of us, Murakami included, are still dechipering what this new universe of art appreciation is becoming, he is beginning to write the rulebook, show after show.
View this post on Instagram@takashipom, “GYATEI²” now on view at @gagosian Beverly Hills. ? @chopemdownfilms for @juxtapozmag
