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 …

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 …

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 …

It’s a Madsaki, Madsaki, Madsaki, World: Or How the Apprentice Elevated the Master of Superflat

Maybe you know him from Barnstormers, or perhaps his Please Don’t Spit on the Painting Show at Widewalls; in any event, there’s not much more I can say about Madsaki that has not been written up in Juxtapoz; and similarly on Honeyee in Japanese here (except he admits to his passionate study of art in …