Tag Archives: Takashi Murakami

Los Angeles: Takashi Murakami – GYATEI2

Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is currently showing a new exhibition entitled GYATEI² at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles.

The exhibition title comes from the Buddhist Hannya Shingyo (Heart Sutra), an incantation often chanted by Zen groups before or after a meditation and translates roughly to “gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond, enlightenment, svāhā.”

GYATEI² reveals myriad variations of interconnected imagery, each permutation and combination generating new meaning.

Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2

Murakami’s first character, Mr. DOB—a whimsical, sharp-toothed Mickey Mouse–like character—reappears in different forms, as does the ubiquitous rainbow flower.

Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2

Elsewhere, images of doorways, graffiti of the word “viral,” and a self-portrait of the artist and his dog are overlaid onto dense graphic patterns.

Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2
Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2

A Statue of Flower Parent and Child (2019), cast in bronze and covered in gold leaf, stands sixteen feet tall and shows an enormous flower character with its flower offspring. Similarly, the rabbit like Kaikai and three-eyed, smiling Kiki (both 2019) are rendered in cast bronze covered in platinum leaf, the cute yet imposing characters illustrating Murakami’s interest in paradox, as kikikaikai describes something that is dangerous yet appealing.

Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2

The seventeen-panel Qinghua (2019) reinterprets a motif originally painted on a vase from the Chinese Yuan Dynasty (c. 1206–1368), whose imagery mingled in Murakami’s memory with childhood trips to the riverside with his father, where fishers would haul enormous carp. At almost eight feet high and fifty-eight feet wide, the image proceeds panel by panel, like an enormous storyboard, or a vase that has been unrolled like a long scroll along the gallery’s walls.

Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2Takashi Murakami - GYATEI2

View the full set of pics here

Takashi Murakami – GYATEI²
Gagosian Gallery
456 North Camden Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

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Paris: Artists and Robots at the Grand Palais

Artists & Robots - Patrick Tresset

The Grand Palais (RMN) in Paris is currently showing an impressive exhibition ‘Artists and Robots’ dedicated to AI: artificial imagination, a common term to design robotic art, generative art and algorithmic art.

The exhibition invites audiences to experience works created by artists with the aid of ever more intelligent robots. Around thirty works offer visitors a glimpse into an immersive and interactive virtual world, a tangible experience of augmented reality, of space and time overturned.

Artificial intelligence is now transforming human existence and also affecting the very nature of the artist’s artwork , from its production, exhibition, to its distribution, conservation and reception.

Immersive works, paintings, sculptures, mobiles, cinema, design, and music: all the creations presented in this exhibition arise from artists working with robotic programs invented and provided for the purpose of art.

Artists & Robots - Leonel Moura

With the use of increasingly powerful software, artists gain a greater autonomy  and an infinite capacity to work with shapes and interactivity. The software programs employed are not only intelligent, but also generate new shapes and figures that allow to see and give pause for thought.

The exhibition is structured in three folds.
The first section present ‘The creative machine’. Robots are always on the move and their movements are sometimes so ‘physical’ and amusing that it is could be easy to give them an animal or human dimension, or even a ‘psychology’.
Featuring works by Jean Tinguely, Nam June Paik, Nicolas Schöffer, Leonel Moura, Patrick Tresset, So Kanno and Takahiro Yamaguchi, J. Lee Thompson, Arcangelo Sassolino.

Artists Robots - Jean TinguelyArtists & Robots - Leonel Moura Artists Robots - Arcangelo SassolinoArtists & Robots - So Kanno & Takahiro Yamaguchi 01Artists & Robots - Patrick TressetArtists & Robots - Patrick TressetArtists & Robots - Patrick Tresset

The second section is about ‘Programmed artwork’, where the robot is becoming invisible. Computing and algorithmic programmes infuse the artwork and technical expertise is set aside as we, the spectators, marvel at the majesty of infinite shapes that change according to the movements of our bodies.

Featuring works by Manfred Mohr, Vera Molnar, Iannis Xenakis, Demian Conrad, Raquel Kogan, Ryoji Ikeda, Pascal Dombis, Elias Crespin, Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, Edmond Couchot and Michel Bret, Miguel Chevalier, Joan Fontcuberta, Michael Hansmeyer and Peter Kogler.

Artists & Robots - StelarcArtists & Robots - StelarcArtists & Robots - Laurent Mignonneau & Christa Sommerer
Artists & Robots - RYOJI IKEDAArtists & Robots - Stelarc
Artists Robots - Edmond Couchot & Michel Bret
Artists & Robots - Miguel ChevalierArtists & Robots - Michael Hansmeyer
Artists & Robots - Peter Kogler

And lastly the space is dedicated to The robot frees itself’.
Deep Learning is making robots even more intelligent and active, to the point where they seem not only to rival humans, but to augment them, fuse with them, taunt them and possibly even duplicate them.

Featuring works by Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau, Catherine Ikam and Louis Fléri, Stelarc, Nicolas Darrot, Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni, Koji Fukada, Oscar Sharp, Daft Punk, Pascal Haudressy, Memo Akten, ORLAN, Takashi Murakami.

Artists & Robots - OrlanArtists & Robots - Nam June PaikArtists & Robots - Tkashi MurakamiArtists & Robots
Artists & Robots - OrlanArtists & Robots - Tkashi Murakami

The contemporary works presented in this exhibition give us a good idea of the questions artists are asking, which mirror our own: What is an artist? What is an artwork? What can a robot achieve that an artist cannot? If it has artificial intelligence, does a robot have imagination? Who decides: the artist, the engineer, the spectator, all of us? Can we talk about a collective artwork?

View the full set of pics here

Artists & Robots
Le Grand Palais
Until 8 July 2018

Paris: G I R L @ Perrotin

G I R L - Perrotin Paris

After initially meeting up in Miami in 2007, multi-talented musician/designer Pharrell Williams and French gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin decided to continue their artistic collaboration seven years later with an exhibition curated especially for Galerie Perrotin’s new space, the Salle de Bal in Paris.

Set in a former ballroom at the Hôtel du Grand Veneur, a 17th century Hôtel
Particulier in the Marais area of Paris, “G I R L” is a contemporary art exhibition, which brings together 48 artworks – including 12 specially produced works. The show pays tribute to femininity through the vision of 37 artists / including 18 women.

G I R L - Perrotin Paris  G I R L - Perrotin Paris   G I R L - Perrotin Paris  G I R L - Perrotin Paris

Pharrell says, “Just like my album [G I R L], what I tried to do is offer many different facets of my appreciation for women…I love women everywhere. I make no apologies for the wide spectrum of affinity for women.”

Participating artists include: Marina Abramovic & Ulay, Chiho Aoshima, Daniel Arsham, Valérie Belin, Sophie Calle, Johan Creten, Tracey Emin, Daniel Firman, Gelitin, Guerrilla Girls, Laurent Grasso, Gregor Hildebrandt, JR, Alex Katz, KAWS, Bharti Kher, Klara Kristalova, Mr., Guy Limone, Annette Messager, Ryan McGinley, Takashi Murakami, Prune Nourry, Yoko Ono, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Rob Pruitt, Paola Pivi, Terry Richardson, Germaine Richier, Cindy Sherman, Taryn Simon, Mickalene Thomas, Aya Takano, Agnès Thurnauer, Xavier Veilhan, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann…
G I R L - Perrotin ParisG I R L - Perrotin Paris   G I R L - Perrotin Paris  G I R L - Perrotin Paris

Some artists have also decided to illustrate Pharrell in their artwork like Takashi Murakami. Daniel Arsham’s The Future Pharrell features a glass and resin life-size statue  while Laurent Grasso painted Pharrell as Napoleon on a horse before a  colossal statue of an Egyptian queen. The Japanese artist Mr. and the American artist Rob Pruitt have created, respectively, a painting of Pharrell with the word “GIRLS” on it, and a sofa, Studio Loveseat, which depicts Pharrell’s image over the years.

G I R L - Perrotin Paris  G I R L - Perrotin Paris   G I R L - Perrotin ParisG I R L - Perrotin Paris     G I R L - Perrotin Paris

View the full set of pics here

“G I R L”, curated by Pharrell Williams

Until June 25, 2014
Salle de Bal, Galerie Perrotin, Paris

Movie: Jellyfish Eyes by Takashi Murakami

With over ten years in the making, Jellyfish Eyes is the feature film debut by renowned  Japanese multidisciplinary artist Takashi Murakami.

Set in a post-Fukushima world,  the sci-fi fantasy film blends computer-animated graphics with live-action cinematography. The movie tells the story of Masashi, a young boy who moves to a sleepy town in the Japanese countryside with his mother in the wake of a natural disaster. After returning home from his new elementary school one day, Masashi discovers a flying jellyfish-like creature whom he befriends and names Kurage-bo. Masashi soon discovers that all his classmates have similarly magical pets, known as F.R.I.E.N.D.s, which are controlled by electronic devices that the children use to battle one another. Despite their playful appearances, however, these F.R.I.E.N.D.s turn out to be part of a sinister plot that will threaten the entire town. 

jellyfish-eyes-takashi-murakami

Takashi Murakami – Jellyfish Eyes, 2013. Film still
© 2013 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Murakami is currently doing a screening tour of art institutions and cultural venues across the United States. For more info visit  www.jellyfisheyesthemovie.com