Yoshitomo Nara is a contemporary Japanese Pop artist. He currently lives and works in Tokyo, though his artwork has been exhibited worldwide. Nara received his B.F.A. (1985) and an M.F.A. (1987) from the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music. Between 1988 and 1993, Nara studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, in Dusseldorf, Germany. Nara has had nearly 40 solo exhibitions since 1984. He is represented in New York City by Marianne Boesky Gallery and in Los Angeles by Blum & Poe.

Nara first came to the fore of the art world during Japan's Pop art movement in the 1990s. The subject matter of his sculptures and paintings is deceptively simple: most works depict one seemingly innocuous subject (often pastel hued children and animals drawn with confident, cartoonish lines) with little or no background. But these children, who appear at first to be cute and even vulnerable, sometimes brandish weapons like knives and saws. Their wide eyes often hold accusatory looks that could be sleepy-eyed irritation at being awoken from a nap-or that could be undiluted expressions of hate.

Nara, however, does not see his weapon-wielding subjects as aggressors. "Look at them, they [the weapons] are so small, like toys. Do you think they could fight with those?" he says. "I don't think so. Rather, I kind of see the children among other, bigger, bad people all around them, who are holding bigger knives..."

Nara's own explanation of his work, then, casts us as the aggressors guilty of betraying and attacking childhood innocence. When cast in that light, Nara incriminates himself as well, for his art is above all based upon the perversion of otherwise innocent subjects.

Lauded by art critics and hipsters alike, Nara's bizarrely intriguing works have gained him a cult following around the world.

Japanese comic books, or manga, and anime are both clear influences on Nara's stylized, large-eyed figures. Nara subverts these typically cute images, however, by infusing his works with horror-like imagery. This juxtaposition of human evil with the innocent child may be a reaction to Japan's rigid social conventions.

The punk rock music of Nara's youth has also influenced the artist's work. Recalling a similar-if more unsettling-image of rebellious, violent youth, Nara's art embraces the punk ethos. That said, Nara has also cited traditions as varied as Renaissance painting, literature, illustration , and graffiti as further inspiration.

But perhaps most significantly, Nara's upbringing in post-World War II Japan profoundly affected his mindset and, subsequently, his artwork as well. He grew up in a time when Japan was experiencing an inundation of Western pop culture; comic books, Walt Disney animation, and Western rock music are just a few examples. Additionally, Nara was raised in the isolated countryside as a latchkey child of working-class parents, so he was often left alone with little to do but explore his young imagination. The fiercely independent subjects that populate so much of his artwork may be a reaction to Nara's own largely independent childhood.

2007 Yoshitomo Nara, The Hague, GEM Museum of Contemporary Art, June 2-October 7, 2007

NARA+GRAF, Centro de Arte Contemporaneo de Malaga, Malaga, Spain, September 21, 2007-January 6, 2008

2006 Yoshitomo Nara + graf, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK

2005 Home, graf gm, Osaka, Japan

Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York

Over the Rainbow: Yoshitomo Nara and Hiroshi Sugito, Kunst, Munich, Germany (traveled to the K21, Dusseldorf, Germany in 2005)

2004 Yoshitomo Nara: New Works 2004, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA

Yoshitomo Nara - From the Depths of My Drawer, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art,Tokyo, Japan

Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna, Austria

Nowhere Land, Galerie Johnen & Schottle, Cologne, Germany

Shadow Puddles, graf gm, Osaka

Touring Exhibition: Kanaz Forest of Creation, Fukui/Yonago City Museum of Art, Tottori/ Yoshii Brick Brewhouse, Hirosaki, Aomori, Rodin Gallery, Seoul

Over the Rainbow, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany

Somewhere, Galerie Zink & Gegner, Munich, Germany

2003 Yoshitomo Nara: New Drawings, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo

S.M.L., graf, Osaka

The good, the bad, the average and unique, Little More Gallery, Tokyo

Galerie Zink and Gegner, Munich, Germany

Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio, (traveled to Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California, Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, St. Louis, Missouri; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii), USA

Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, USA

Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

2002 Who snatched the babies?, Centre National de l'estampe et de l'arte imprime, Chatou, France

Saucer tales, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, USA

12 Etchings, Space Force, Tokyo

2001Nara Yoshitomo: In Those Days, Hakutosha, Nagoya

I Don't Mind If You Forget Me, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan (travels to Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Ashiya City Museum of Art, Asahikawa Prefectural Museum of art, Aomori Museum of Art), (cat.)

Drawing Days, Colette, Paris

Clear for Landing, Galerie Michael Zink, München, Germany

In the White Room, Blum & Poe, Santa Monica, USA

2000 Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

Walk on, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

In the Empty Fortress, Johnen & Sch"ttle, Cologne, Germany

Lullaby Supermarket, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, California

1999 Somebody Whispers in Nürnberg, Institut fur Moderne Kunst Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany (cat.)

Done Did, Parco Gallery, Nagoya, Japan

Happy Hour, Hakutosha, Nagoya, Japan

Pave Your Dreams, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, USA

Blum & Poe, Santa Monica, California

Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York

Walking Alone, The Ginza Art Space, Tokyo, Japan (cat.)

No, They Didn't, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Toyko, Japan

In the Floating World, Nadiff, Tokyo

1998 Institute of Visual Arts, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA, curated by Marilu Knode (cat.)

1997 Pacific Babies, Blum & Poe, Santa Monica, California

Screen Memory, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Lonesome Puppy, Hakutosha, Nagoya, Japan

Drawing Days, Hakutosha, Nagoya, Japan

Sleepless Night, Galerie Michael Zink, Regensburg, Gemany

Screen Memory, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo

1996 Galerie Johnen & Sch"ttle (with Karen Kilimnik), Cologne, Germany

Lonesome Puppy, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Hothouse Fresh, Gallery Hakutosha, Nagoya, Japan (cat.)

Empty Surprise, Artium, Fukuoka, Japan

Cup Kids, Hakutosha, Nagoya, Japan

1995 Cup Kids, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagoya, Japan (cat.)

Pacific Babies, Blum & Poe, Santa Monica, California

In the Deepest Puddle, SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo, Japan (cat.)

Nothing Gets Me Down, Galerie Humanite, Tokyo, Japan (cat.)

Oil on Canvas, Galerie Humanite, Nagoya, Japan (cat.)

Project for Gunma, Gunma Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Takasaki, Gunma, Japan

1994 Lonesome Babies, Hakutosha, Nagoya, Japan (cat.)

Hula Hula Garden, Galerie d'Eendt, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Christmas For Sleeping Children, Itoki Crystal Hall, Osaka, Japan (cat.)

1993 Galerie Johnen & Sch"ttle, Cologne, Germany

Be Happy, Galerie Humanite, Tokyo, Japan (cat.)

1992 Loft Gallery, Deventer, The Netherlands

Drawings, Galerie d'Eendt, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Galerie Johnen & Sch"ttle, Cologne, Germany

1991Harmlos, Galerie im Kinderspielhaus, Dusseldorf, Germany

Cogitationes Cordium, Galerie Humanite, Tokyo, Japan

Galerie d'Eendt, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1990 Galerie d'Eendt, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1989 Irrlichttheater, Stuttgart, Germany

1988 Innocent Being, Galerie Humanite, Nagoya and Tokyo, Japan

Goethe Institute, Dusseldorf, Germany

1985 Recent Works, Gallery Space to Space, Nagoya, Japan

1984 Wonder Room, Gallery Space to Space, Nagoya, Japan

It's a Little Wonderful House, Love Collection Gallery, Nagoya, Japan

2007 Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967, Museum of Contemporary Art, September 29, 2007-January 6, 2008

When We Build Let US Think That We Will Build Forever; An Exhibition of the Zabludowicz Collection at BALTIC, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England, September 21, 2007-January 20, 2008

RED HOT-Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX, July 22-October 21, 2007

2005 Yokohama International Triennial, Yokohama, Japan

Ten Year Anniversary Exhibition, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

The Elegance of Silence: Contemporary Art from East Asia, Mori Art Museum,

Tokyo

Little Boy, Japan Society, New York

Manga and Japanese Contemporary Art, Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki,

Finland

2004 Somewhere, Nara and Sugito, Galerie Zink and Gegner, Munich, Germany

Over the Rainbow, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany

Funny Cuts, Staatsgaleire Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

Fiction Love, MOCA Taipei, Taiwan

Nonsect Radical, Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan

Dog Days of Summer, California University Museum of Photography, USA

Why not live for art?, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo

Unusual Combination, + Gallery, Nagoya

Onkochishin, White Cube Gallery, Osaka

Time of My Life: Art with Youthful Spirit, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery Tokyo

Super Nova Art of the 1990s, from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

2003 Ninos, Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Spain

Splat, Boom, Pow! The Influence of comics in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, USA, curated by Valerie Cassel (cat.), (travels)

The Japanese Experience-Inevitable, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal-Unterowisheim, Germany

Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, curated by Vicky Clark and Barbara Bloemink (cat.)

Opening Exhibition, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo

My Room Somehow Somewhere, gm, Osaka

M_ARS - Art and War, Neue Galerie, Austria

Collection, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan

Room Air, It-Park, Tapei, Taiwan

Your Dog is Orange County, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, USA

FOIL, Little More Gallery, Tokyo

Nichijyou Seikatsu, Speak For, Tokyo

Girls Don't Cry, Parco Museum, Tokyo

The Galleries Show 2003, Royal Academy of Arts, London

Painting In Our Time, The Niigata Bandaijima Art Museum, Niigata Japan

Trauer/Grief, Atelier Augarten, Vienna, Austria

Do Hope For The Future, Laforet Museum, Tokyo

Art de Zoo, The Akita Museum of Modern Art, Akita, Japan

Ukiyo-E Avant-Garde, Tokyo Station Gallery, Tokyo

Happiness, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

2002 Pop! Pop! Pop!, The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki,

Babel 2002, National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea, Soul, South Korea

Fragile Figures, Palette School, tokyo, Japan

Weiche Brüche.Japan, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Germany

The Doraemon, Suntry Museum of Art, Osaka

Bokura No Hero and Heroine, Otaru City Museum of Art, Hokkaido, Japan

Emotional Site, Shokuryo Building, Tokyo

Monalisa Mammon, The Hiratsuka Museum of art, Kanagawa, Japan

Contemporary Art from Japan to Finland, Helsinki, Finland

Drawing Days, Backspace, Galerie Michael Zink, Germany

Drawing Now: Eight Propositions, MoMA QNS, Queens, New York

Pressing, objectif, Antwerp, Belgium

2001Almost Warm and Fuzzy: Childhood and Contemporary Art, PS1, New York, USA Fundacio La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain/ Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, USA/ Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Takashi Murakami/ Yoshimoto Nara, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Jap in the Box, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

Public Offerings, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California

Vertical Time: Past, Present and Future of Sculpture, University Art Museum, Tokyo National

Super Flat, Museum Of Contemporary Art, Los Angels, USA, curated by Takashi Murakami, (cat.), travels to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle

Forms of Human Figures from the Terada Collection, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo

Aichi Prefectural University of Art Collection, Haruhi Museum, Aichi, Japan

SENRITSUMIRAI Arte Attuale dal Giappone, Centre for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy

My Reality - Contemporary art and the Culture of Japanese Animation, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, USA, curated by Jeff Fleming, (cat.)

Tsunami Raiders, Galerie Michael Zink, Munich, Germany

Jam: Tokyo London, Barbican Centre, London

Arte Attuale dal Giappone, Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy

Suichoku no Jikan, The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music

Silence of the City, Gwanju Art Museum, Korea

Neo Tokyo-Japanese Art Now, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia

Camera Works, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, USA

2000 Drawings 2000, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, USA

The Darker Side of Playland: Childhood Imagery from Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA (cat.)

Super Flat, The MOCA Gallery at the Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood

Trading Views, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken

Drawn From Life, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York

Super Flat, Parco Gallery, Tokyo and touring to Nagoya and other cities in Japan (cat.)

Dark Mirrors of Japan, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, NL (cat.)

Yoshitomo Nara and Hana Hashimoto - The Amazing Garden, Takayama Memorial Art Museum, Shichinohe, Aomori, Japan

Continental Shift, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany

Hakuyosha, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

Tokushima Collection 2000, Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Tokushima

Presumed Innocent, Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, France (travels to Hayward Gallery. London)

Culturalities Exhibition, Westzone Gallery Space, London

Erlangen/Muncipal ,MuseumDe Lakenhal, Leiden, The Netherlands

Gendai, Centre of Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland

Kids World Aomori 2000, Aomori Prefectural Museum, Aomori, Japan

Gose Abe Ando His Influences, Namioka Town Hall, Aomori

Almost Warm and Fuzzy: Childhood and Contemporary Art, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA/ Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale,AZ

Kinder des 20ten Jahrhunderts, Galerie der Stadt Aschaffenburg, Aschaffenburg/ Mittelrhein Museum, Koblenz, Germany

Works on Paper, Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo

Yoshimoto Nara and Hiroshi Sugito, Galerie Humanite, Nagoya, Japan

1999 Spellbound, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, California

New Modernism for a New Millennium, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA

Vergiss den Ball und Spiel Weiter, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany

Painting for Joy: New Japanese Painting in 1990s, The Japan Foundation Forum, Tokyo, Japan

Art is Fun 10: Angelic, Devilish, or Both, Hara Museum ARC, Shibukawa, Japan

Tendances, Abbaye Saint-Andre Centre d'Art Contemporain, Meymac, France

Almost Warm and Fuzzy: Childhood and Contemporary Art, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA

It's an Animal World, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan

Art/Domestic, Setagaya Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan (cat.), curated by Takashi Azumaya

Yoshimoto Nara and Hiroshi Sugito, Gallery Hakutosha, Nagoya, Japan

1998 The Manga Age, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

1997 Dream of Existence, Municipal Museum of Art, Budapest, Hungary

Japanese Contemporary Art Exhibition, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

Drawing Show, Galerie d'Eendt, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (with Henk Visch)

Galerie & Ediciones Ginkgo, Madrid, Spain

VOCA, The Royal Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

1996 Tokyo Pop, The Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Hiratsuka City, Japan (cat.)

Ironic Fantasy: Another World by Five Contemporary Artists, The Miyagi Museum of Art, Miyagi, Japan (cat.)

Kind of Blue, Hakutosha, Nagoya, Japan

Intangible Childhood, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Mie, Japan

1995 Galerie d'Eendt, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Drawing Chat, (with Katsuhige Nakahashi), Shinanobashi Gallery, Osaka, Japan

Endless Happiness, SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo, Japan

Art x = @, SAM Museum, Osaka, Japan

That Figures, Galerie d'Eendt, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Hon to Bunchin (Book and Paperweight), Gallery Kuranuki, Osaka, Japan

POSITIV, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany

Dusseldorf-andere Ort, Orangerie Schlos Brake, Lemgo

The Future of Paintings, 1995, Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Osaka, Japan

Takeoffs, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange, California

Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Osaka, Japan

Gunma Biennale, Gunma Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Takasaki, Gunma, Japan

1994 My Room is Your Room, 7th Nagoya Contemporary Art Fair, Nagoya City Gallery, Nagoya, Japan

Harvest '94, Haus Bickdorf, Kempen

Harvest Kempen-Nagoya, (with Shiro Matsui), Hakutosha, Nagoya, Japan

Art Against AIDS, Art Cologne, Cologne, Germany

1993 Partners, Galerie d'Eendt, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Animals, Galerie Tanya Rumpff, Haarlem, The Netherlands

Harvest '93, (with Shiro Matsui), Haus Bockdorf, Kempen

In Situ, Theater aan het Vrijthof, Maastricht, Belgium

1992 Tijdelijk Asiel, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

19914th Nagoya Contemporary Art Fair. Electricity Museum Nagoya, Nagoya, Japan

Pack, SA-IN Gallery, Pusan, Korea

1990 Brille, Galerie Pentagon, Cologne

Acqua Stana, Galerie Ulla Sommers, Dusseldorf, Germany

1989 Mensch und Technik, Nixdorf A.G., Dusseldorf, Germany

1988 Feeling House, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Mie, Japan

1987 New Artists in Nagoya, Westbeth Gallery, Nagoya, Japan

1986 Each Person's Expression of Space, Gifu Prefectural Art Museum, Japan

Present '86, Gallery NAF, Nagoya, Japan

1985 Sense of Vision and Touch, Westbeth Gallery, Nagoya, Japan

Five Person's Musical Band, Love Collection Gallery, Nagoya, Japan

1984 Paranoia, Westbeth Gallery, Nagoya, Japan

Two Person Show, Gallery Denega, Hirsaki, Japan