Category: Featured

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Legally Subversive: Roamcouch and the Art of Beautiful Contradiction

Art and Contradiction sum up the enigmatic Roamcouch, perhaps the best known Japanese graffiti artist (maybe second to this guy, raised in the US). Roamcouch’s 2014 premier solo show in the U.S., Beautiful Life, established his street cred and trademark style of beautiful contradiction evoked through a clash of realist scenes bounded by surreal toy-like backdrops of rainbows and stars, as in the works Rainbow Inc. and When you wish upon a star. Revolution illustrates rebellion in the hands of innocents who take aim at justifiable social ills––such as the POlice.

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Wouldn’t it be Nice if We Could Streak with the Blue Robot Cat Amongst the Flying Elephants? Murakami and the Infinite Collaboration with Fujiko F. Fujio’s Doraemon

With the number of Doraemon/Murakami collaboration prints at 37 offset editions, 26 hanga editions and counting, it’s no wonder that there is confusion about what’s what. What’s so great about Doraemon anyway? Who on earth is Murakami’s collaborator, the mysterious Fujiko F. Fujio? Why does this print retail literally for $4000 and while that other …

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That KYNE Show: Why KYNE is Murakami’s next Kingmaker Project

Recently the graffiti artist KYNE has appeared on Murakami’s radar. Kaikai Kiki’s Tonari no Zingaro has released a series of silkscreen editions to promote him, and KYNE has a Perrotin appearance in Healing, a group show curated by Murakami. Their connection stems in part from a shared love of channeling Showa era pop culture in …

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The sudden return of the Murakami mechanical print: The Field of Flowers & Flowers of Hope (2020) Archival Pigment prints and his brief brush with Xerography

“Well, I don’t know.” Anne looked thoughtful. “I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I’ve never been able to believe it. I don’t believe a rose would be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage.” (L.M. Montgomery, Anne of …

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It’s silkscreens all the way down—the proliferation of Murakami silkscreens (New Wave Kaikai Kiki Hanga)

Murakami has continued to defy/undermine/exceed/confound expectations with his latest run of silkscreen and handmade lithograph prints. (Both, henceforth, generally referred to as hanga, Murakami’s Japanese appellation.) There have been nearly 50 hanga editions produced since 2017—the total number of Murakami hanga over the course of 17 years had been under 90 editions! Since 2017 a …

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