Mark Hosford

Growing Boy

Kate Samworth is a Maryland-based artist who works with scratchboard, an illustrative technique using sharp knives and tools for engraving into a thin layer of white China clay that ...

Kate Samworth is a Maryland-based artist who works with scratchboard, an illustrative technique using sharp knives and tools for engraving into a thin layer of white China clay that ...

Kate Samworth is a Maryland-based artist who works with scratchboard, an illustrative technique using sharp knives and tools for engraving into a thin layer of white China clay that ...

Kate Samworth is a Maryland-based artist who works with scratchboard, an illustrative technique using sharp knives and tools for engraving into a thin layer of white China clay that ...

Kate Samworth is a Maryland-based artist who works with scratchboard, an illustrative technique using sharp knives and tools for engraving into a thin layer of white China clay that ...

Kate Samworth is a Maryland-based artist who works with scratchboard, an illustrative technique using sharp knives and tools for engraving into a thin layer of white China clay that ...

Takashi Murakami Original hand signed Flower Drawing on limited edition skateboard, 2017 Unique Flower Drawing in Marker on skateboard. Signed by Murakami Flower drawing done in marker and boldly signed by Murakami 31 × 8 × 1/4 inches The skate deck was issued unsigned, but this one was, exceptionally hand signed with a flower drawing by Murakami at Complexcon in 2017. Note measurements of 31 x 8 inches apply to each skate deck. This limited edition Murakami skate deck was created and sold exclusively at the 2017 Complexcon convention and is already considered a collectors' item. About Takashi Murakami: We want to see the newest things. That is because we want to see the future, even if only momentarily. It is the moment in which, even if we don’t completely understand what we have glimpsed, we are nonetheless touched by it. This is what we have come to call art. —Takashi Murakami Drawing from traditional Japanese painting, sci-fi, anime, and the global art market, Takashi Murakami creates paintings, sculptures, and films populated by repeated motifs and mutating characters of his own creation. His wide-ranging work embodies an intersection of pop culture, history, and fine art. Murakami earned a BA, MFA, and PhD from Tokyo University of the Arts, where he studied nihonga (traditional Japanese painting). In 1996 he established the Hiropon Factory, a studio/workshop that in subsequent years grew into an art production and artist management company, now known as Kaikai Kiki Co. Ltd. Since the early 1990s Murakami has invented characters that combine aspects of popular cartoons from Japan, Europe, and the US—from his first Mr. DOB, who sometimes serves as a stand-in for the artist himself, to various anime characters and smiling flowers, bears, and lions. These figures act as icons and symbols—hosts for more complex themes of violence, technology, and fantasy. In 2000 Murakami curated Superflat, an exhibition featuring works by artists whose techniques and mediums synthesize various aspects of Japanese visual culture, from ukiyo-e (woodblock prints of the Edo period) to anime and kawaii (a particular cuteness in cartoons, handwriting, products, and more). With this exhibition, Murakami advanced his Superflat theory of art, which highlights the “flatness” of Japanese visual culture from traditional painting to contemporary subcultures in the context of World War II and its aftermath. Murakami’s work extends to mass-produced items such as toys, key chains, and t-shirts. In 2002 he began a multiyear collaboration with Marc Jacobs on the redesign of the Louis Vuitton monogram. Murakami then took the radical step of directly incorporating the Vuitton monograms and patterns into his paintings and sculptures. While Murakami’s imagery may appear to present unprecedented characters and forms, many contain explicit art historical references, and some are even direct contemporary updates on traditional Japanese works. In 2009 Murakami and the esteemed art historian Nobuo Tsuji began a creative dialogue centered on a group of Japanese artists known as the Edo eccentrics. This collaboration led to an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2017, for which Murakami and Tsuji selected Japanese works from the museum’s collection and showed them alongside works by Murakami. The latter included Dragon in Clouds—Red Mutation: The version I painted myself in annoyance after Professor Nobuo Tsuji told me, “Why don’t you paint something yourself for once?” (2010), a red monochrome version of the famous eighteenth-century painting Dragon and Clouds by Soga Shōhaku...

"Pink Lady IV" (2019) by SarahGrace Archival ink on archival paper, block print; woman, nude, figurative portrait Hand-signed by artist Certificate of Authenticity Included Framing A...

"Pink Lady V" (2019) by SarahGrace Archival ink on archival paper, block print; woman, nude, figurative portrait Hand-signed by artist Certificate of Authentici...

"Pink Lady X" (2019) by SarahGrace Archival ink on archival paper, block print; woman, nude, figurative portrait, hot pink pigment Hand-signed by artist Certificate of Authenticity I...

"Pink Lady IX" (2019) by SarahGrace Archival ink on archival paper, block print; woman, nude, figurative portrait, pink & purple pigment Hand-signed by artist Certificate of Authenti...

"Pink Lady VII" (2019) by SarahGrace Archival ink on archival paper, block print; woman, nude, figurative portrait, pink & purple pigment Hand-signed by artist Certificate of Authent...