Takashi Murakami: Unfamiliar People—Swelling of Monsterized Human Ego | Asian Art Museum | Sept 15–Feb 12, 2024

Monsterized  features a plethora of works by the Japanese artist and includes new commissions for the Asian Art Museum show. It is curated by Laura W. Allen, who also co-created the exhibition’s FANTASTIC catalogue (available for sale on Amazon and at the Asian Art Museum’s store).

Thematically, “Swelling of the Monsterized Human Ego”, is a reflection on how social media, birthed by technology, has affected the way in which we perceive and interact with ourselves and each other. Monsterized also includes thousands of images related to his NFT series, another nod to technology in the art world. He also briefly mentioned AI during the museum’s Q&A session, saying he used Adobe’s AI recently for one of his shows.

I really enjoyed the “monsters” featured in and around the display case, which are characters from Murakami’s 2013 film debut, Jellyfish Eyes (available on Amazon streaming). It’s kind of like Godzilla meets Pokémon, where the bad guys, in the wake of the tsunami, are harvesting children’s energy through gaming, for power. It’s a sweet film with shadowy undertones—so Murakami, wonderfully gothic, and quintessentially Japanese.

Murakami’s fish paintings, inspired by Chinese pottery, are a stunning delight and are among the stand-out pieces of the show. These beautiful large scale works are made using his practiced squeegee method, but are astoundingly different in terms of their aesthetic—a wonderful variation on his signature style.

Akira Aoi took me to the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, and lectured me in front of a white porcelain jar: ‘Do you understand what this is? This is female buttocks. At the end of the day all people do is be born, live, and die. If you can’t express the eros inherent in this process, you can’t be called an artist. This piece here contains everything. This is your goal, so take a good look.’ So I earnestly tackled my training as an artist in the direction he had pointed for me…I don’t quite know myself why I desire to paint fish, but I think it has to do with how I always really liked having fish around since I was a child, catching them in the river and keeping them for several years or raising ornamental goldfish. As for the translucent feel of the glazed ceramics, I am recreating the impression the viewer would have when looking at ceramic work through my own production process of acrylic painting. I have the know-how that I have been developing over the past twenty-some years, such as squeegee work for acrylic paintings in the technique of applying varnish coatings over the layered surface created by repeated sandings.

Over the past decade and a half, I’ve seen 3 Murakami exhibitions, including © MURAKAMI at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in 2007 and The Broad’s Takashi Murakami: Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow  last year, that included an impressive interactive QR code augmented reality collab with Instagram/Meta. (Images from that show can be seen on A LOVE LETTER TO ART’s Instagram page.)

Murakami Monsterized is another fantastic iteration of the artist’s work, with the CUTEST MUSEUM exhibition entrance EVER. The show’s opening party was such a joyous event and a wonderful reminder that after years of COVID-19 restrictions, the public is excited to engage with fun, creative spaces when available. Was also great to finally be able to check out the museum’s new 7,500-square-foot rooftop East West Bank Art Terrace, originally set to open in 2020. Looking forward to attending more Asian Art Museum events in the future. Was a blast!

Murakami’s Superflat style has so much terrific universal appeal with its bright colors and fun pops of anime that one could easily miss his deep commentary on the social sciences, art, consumerism, existentialism, and spirituality if they weren’t looking for it. I suppose distraction in and of the art is the strength and the bane of a talented artist. When I see a Murakami work, I still feel good—even when he is talking about chaos, evil spirits, death, destruction—and even—taxes.