Yoshitomo Nara - Harmless Kitty
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Harmless Kitty Poster on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
2010s Yoshitomo Nara Art
Paper
Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara is one of the most influential artists to emerge from Japan's Pop art movement in the 1990s. Drawing inspiration from the anime and manga characters that he was exposed to during his childhood, Nara creates characters, usually small children, who possess similar cartoonish qualities, with highly stylized features and especially large eyes. However, Nara's illustrations of children, who are often brandishing weapons, are often more menacing and devilish than they are cute and innocent.
Nara has assembled a cult-like following centered around his childlike illustrations although the themes surrounding his work touch on broader social and cultural topics such as violence and the rigidity of social structures in Japan. While he works mainly in painting and drawing, he also experiments in sculpture and installations.
Since his first solo exhibition at Blum and Poe Gallery in 1984, Nara has had nearly 40 solo exhibitions worldwide, from Iceland to Japan to France to the United States.
Find authentic Yoshitomo Nara prints and other art on 1stDibs.
Yoshitomo Nara - Harmless Kitty
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Harmless Kitty Poster on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
YOSHITOMO NARA - WE ARE PUNKS MUG (Small) Design modern pop art urban Japan
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Madrid, Madrid
Yoshitomo Nara - We are punks Mug Small Date of creation: 2011 Medium: Porcelain Edition: Open Size: 65 x Φ85 mm (200ml) Condition: Brand new, inside its custom box Description: A small porcelain mug based on Yoshitomo Nara's We Are Punks (2011), a colour-pencil drawing of a defiant, round-headed child whose expression falls somewhere between a lullaby and a battle cry. The piece belongs to a body of work where Nara channels the raw energy of the punk and folk records he grew up listening to on U.S. Armed Forces radio in rural Aomori, a thread that runs from his earliest sketchbooks to his large-scale canvases and limited editions. Crafted in Hasami ware from Nagasaki Prefecture, the mug is dishwasher and microwave safe. The clay is fired and glazed in Japan using techniques passed down through four centuries of potters in the hills above Nagasaki. The result is a clean white body, light but solid in the hand, with a matte finish that lets the illustration sit naturally on the surface rather than floating under a layer of gloss. Peek inside once you have finished your espresso and you will find one of Nara's girls staring back at you from the bottom of the cup, as if she got there first and has no intention of leaving. It is a small, private encounter: exactly the kind of moment Nara builds into his work. His figures never perform for a crowd; they address you one-on-one, and finding one at the bottom of a coffee cup is about as intimate as it gets. ABOUT THE ARTIST Yoshitomo Nara (奈良美智, b. 1959, Hirosaki) is one of the most influential Japanese artists working today. Round-headed children with piercing gazes populate his canvases and sculptures, images that have gone well beyond the art world to become a broader cultural phenomenon. Childhood in Aomori: Solitude, Nature, and Radio Waves Nara grew up in Hirosaki, a small city in Aomori Prefecture at the northern tip of Honshū. Both parents worked long hours, leaving young Yoshitomo to fend for himself after school. The Japanese have a word for children like him, kagikko, latchkey kids who come home to an empty house and learn to keep their own company. That early acquaintance with solitude runs through every painting. Look at any of Nara's figures and you will find a self-contained being who meets your eye with a steadiness that could be courage or could just as easily be vulnerability. During those solitary years, Western music reached him through the Far East Network (FEN), the U.S. Armed Forces radio station. Rock, folk, and later punk gave him a way to feel before painting ever did. As a young boy he bought his first record, Suzie Q, and has often said that album covers were his earliest art gallery. Later, he would design covers for Shonen Knife, R.E.M., and Bloodthirsty Butchers, and every exhibition he puts on is accompanied by a playlist of his own making. Education: Aichi and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf After earning a BFA (1985) and MFA (1987) at the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, Nara relocated to Germany to enrol at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the same school that had shaped Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter. Under Neo-Expressionist painter A.R. Penck (1991–1993), he received one piece of advice that stuck: "Paint on the canvas as if you are drawing." Bold, pared-back figures, large rounded heads set against bare backgrounds, began to take shape on his canvases. At the Kunstakademie's annual student show in 1992, visitors saw The Girl with the Knife in Her Hand (1991), a painting that crystallised the tension running through all of Nara's work: an apparently innocent girl holding a tiny knife, a gesture he reads not as aggression but as self-defence against a threatening adult world. Once finished with his studies, Nara settled in Cologne in 1994 and set up in a former cotton mill. Cut off by the language barrier, he turned painting into a conversation with himself, and it was in that solitude that the gaze people remember long after leaving the gallery first appeared. Return to Japan and International Acclaim Twelve years later, Nara came back to Japan. I DON'T MIND, IF YOU FORGET ME. opened at the Yokohama Museum of Art in 2001 and toured five Japanese venues, including Hirosaki. MoMA New York acquired 130 of his drawings around the same time, and the travelling retrospective Nothing Ever Happens (2003–2005) cemented his reputation in the United States. Within the Japanese "New Pop" wave, he shared the stage with artists such as Takashi Murakami, Makoto Aida, and Mariko Mori...
Porcelain
Yoshitomo Nara - Dream Time
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Dream Time, 2021 Print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
Yoshitomo Nara 'Hazy, Humid Day' Original Exhibition Print
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in San Rafael, CA
Yoshitomo Nara (Japanese, b. 1959) Hazy, Humid Day, 2022 Offset lithograph Printed in Japan Official exhibition poster print based on the painting of the same name debuted at the Tai...
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara - Thinking My Home
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara Thinking My Home Offset lithograph on paper Sheet size: 51.5 x 36.4 cm Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year published by N's Yard, Japan
Offset
Missing in Action (Yoshitomo Nara)
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Manchester, GB
Yoshitomo Nara, Missing In Action, 2021 Offset lithograph print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in (51.5 × 36.4 cm) Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year published by N'...
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara - Missing in Action
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Missing in Action Poster on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
Yoshitomo Nara - In the Pink Water
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara In the Pink Water, 2021 Offset lithograph on paper Sheet size: 72.8 x 51.5 cm Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year Unnumbered Sold Out edition pub...
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara - Tomorrow's Far Away
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara Tomorrow's Far Away Offset lithograph on paper Sheet size: 51.5 x 36.4 cm Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year published by N's Yard, Japan
Offset
Alone in the Wind Yoshitomo Nara 3 Deck Triptych Set
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Draper, UT
Talented Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara has a powerful impact when it comes to peace, human rights, and freedom. Even now, almost 60 years later, the lyrics of “Blowin’ in the Wind” ...
Wood, Plywood, Wood Panel
Yoshitomo Nara - Young Mother
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Young Mother, 2021 Print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
Yoshitomo Nara - Lollipop
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Lollipop Print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
Yoshitomo Nara - The Little Star Dweller
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara The Little Star Dweller, 2018 Print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
Miss Spring
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Digital pigment print on Takeo Deep PV Hakou paper and hardback book 27.9 x 22.9 cm Edition of 100 + 5 APs It was produced in Tokyo under the direction of the artist. Each print com...
Digital Pigment
Yoshitomo Nara - Hazy, Humid Day
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Hazy Humid Day, 2022 Offset lithograph 28 7/10 × 20 3/10 in 72.8 × 51.5 cm
Paper
Smoking Girl Mousepad
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Washington , DC, DC
Mousepad featuring Yoshitomo Nara's Smoking Girl
Digital
White Aomori Dog Bank
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Washington , DC, DC
This Yoshitomo Nara Dog is a smaller scale model of the large one that sits at Mori Museum. It is made of soft vinyl and designed to be used as a bank. It is ...
Plastic
Yoshitomo Nara - In the Milky Lake Thinking One
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara In the Milky Lake Thinking One, 2018 Print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 2/5 in 51.5 × 36.5 cm
Paper
Yoshitomo Nara Marching on a Butterbur Leaf Print Contemporary Art
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Draper, UT
Edition Details: Year: 2019 Class: Art Print Status: Official Released: 10/01/19 Run: 1,000 Technique: Fine Art Lithograph Paper: 80# archival qual...
Lithograph
Yoshitomo Nara - Princess of Snooze, 2023
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Princess of Snooze, 2023 Poster on paper 28 7/10 × 20 3/10 in 72.8 × 51.5 cm
Paper
Full Moon Night. Limited Edition of 50 (print) by Yoshitomo Nara signed
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Full Moon Night (from "In the Floating World" series) Fuji Xerox copy print Signed, dated, and numbered 11/50 in pencil. Image: 29.5 x 41.5 cm. Sheet: 29.5 x 41.5 cm. BSS No. : E-199...
Color
Yoshitomo Nara - Midnight Truth
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara Midnight Truth Offset lithograph on paper Sheet size: 51.5 x 36.4 cm Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year published by N's Yard, Japan
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara - 123 Drumming Girls (Set of 3)
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara 123 Drumming Girls ( Set Of 3 ), 2020 Vinyl Figures 5 1/2 × 3 in 14 × 7.6 cm From an unknown edition
PVC
Yoshitomo Nara - Dead of Night
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Dead of Night, 2021 Print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
Girl with Eye Patch "Untitled" 3 Deck Triptych Set
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Draper, UT
Yoshitomo Nara is a Japanese artist best known for his paintings of children and animals that appear simultaneously sweet and sinister. A contemporary of Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo ...
Wood, Plywood, Wood Panel
Yoshitomo Nara - Blankey
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Blankey, 2022 Print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 2/5 in 51.5 × 36.5 cm
Paper
Yoshitomo Nara - In the Pink Water
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara In the Pink Water, 2021 Print on paper 28 7/10 × 20 3/10 in 72.8 × 51.5 cm
Paper
A Sinking Island Floating in a Sea Called Space set of 2
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Washington , DC, DC
Beautiful limited edition posters by Yoshitomo Nara for his exhibition at the Hammer Museum. Only available for a limited amount of time where they sold out quickly, edition size unk...
Paper
Yoshitomo Nara - Jolie the Little Thinker
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Jolie the Little Thinker, 2022 Offset Lithograph (Poster) 28 7/10 × 20 3/10 in 72.8 × 51.5 cm
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara - Let's Talk about Glory
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Let's Talk about Glory, 2021 Print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
Beh!, 2003 Limited edition print by Yoshitomo Nara, signed and numbered
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959)
Beh!, 2003
Medium: Lithograph on paper (8 plates, 10 colors)
Image: 49.8 × 40.0 cm (1...
Lithograph
Light Haze Day - Japanese, Contemporary, Gold, Pop Art
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Light Haze Day, 2022 3 x skateboard decks Each deck measure approx. 31x8in (80x20cm) Made of 7-ply Grade A Canadian Maple wood printed artist signature on each skateboard 3 x Sk8olog...
Wood, Screen
Yoshitomo Nara - Should I Go?
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Should I Go?, 2021 Print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
$1,000
Midnight Truth, published by N's Yard, Japan, offset print, stamped, unnumbered
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in New York, NY
Yoshitomo Nara Midnight Truth, 2017 Offset lithographic poster Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year Unnumbered 20 1/2 × 14 1/4 inches Unframed published by N's Yard,...
Lithograph, Offset
$20,000
Cosmic Girls: Eyes Opened / Eyes Closed, Limited Edition Offset Print by Nara
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Cosmic Girls: Eyes Opened / Eyes Closed (two works) The pair of offset lithographs in colors, on smooth wove paper, 2008, from the edition of 500, each with the artist's copyright st...
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara - In The Milky Lake
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara In The Milky Lake Offset lithograph on paper Sheet size: 51.5 x 36.4 cm Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year published by N's Yard, Japan
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara - Love from the Sea
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara Love from the Sea, 2021 Fine bone china 26.7 cm Edition of 250 comes in bespoke presentation box Yoshitomo Nara, a celebrated contemporary artist hailing from Japan, ...
Ceramic
Yoshitomo Nara - Thinking My Home
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Thinking My Home, 2021 Print on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
Banging the Drum, Offset Print by Yoshitomo Nara
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Banging the Drum, 2020 by Yoshitomo Nara Offset lithograph in colors, 2020, on 80# Archival Quality Wove Paper, unframed published by Dallas Contempo...
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara - The Little Star Dweller
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara The Little Star Dweller Offset lithograph on paper Sheet size: 51.5 x 36.4 cm Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year published by N's Yard, Japan
Offset
Pup Cup
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Washington , DC, DC
Beautiful Pup Cup designed by Yoshitomo Nara. Brand new and comes with original packaging.
Plastic
Yoshitomo Nara - Princess of Snooze
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara Princess of Snooze Offset lithograph on paper Sheet size: 72.8 x 51.5 cm Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year published by N's Yard, Japan
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara - Dead Of Night
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara Dead Of Night Offset lithograph on paper Sheet size: 51.5 x 36.4 cm Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year published by N's Yard, Japan
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara - News
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara New Offset lithograph on paper Sheet size: 51.5 x 36.4 cm Stamped with title, artist's name, copyright and year published by N's Yard, Japan
Offset
Star Island. Limited Edition of 100 (print) by Yoshitomo Nara signed
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Star Island (2003), Edition 69/100. Silkscreen on paper. Signed, dated, and numbered on verso. Image: 30 x 30 cm. Sheet: 30 x 30 cm. BSS No. : E-2003-006. Catalogue Raisonne' No. : Y...
Screen
YOSHITOMO NARA - WE ARE PUNKS MUG (Large) Design modern pop art urban Japan
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Madrid, Madrid
Yoshitomo Nara - We are punks Mug Large Date of creation: 2011 Medium: Porcelain Edition: Open Size: 95 x Φ85 mm (300ml) Condition: Brand new, inside its custom box Description: The big sibling in Yoshitomo Nara's We Are Punks porcelain series, this 300 cc mug features a vampire-fanged girl peering over a wall on its side with the quiet menace of someone who arrived first and has no intention of leaving. "We Are Punks" is printed on the exterior as both a title and a statement of intent. The image derives from Nara's 2011 colour-pencil drawing of the same name, part of a practice where childhood defiance and subcultural energy merge into a visual language recognisable across a room. Made in Hasami ware from Nagasaki Prefecture, the mug is fired, glazed and finished in Japan. Hasami potters developed their craft supplying everyday tableware to the domestic market, which means the porcelain is built to be used, not merely admired. It is microwave and dishwasher safe. The white ground is clean and unglazed on the outside where the illustration sits, giving the print a tactile, almost paper-like quality that feels closer to a drawing than to a mass-produced transfer. At 300 cc it holds enough coffee to start the morning with the same stubborn composure Nara's children have been modelling for over three decades. Pair it with the small mug: the two stack together and, like any well-conceived double act, gain from being seen as a set. That stacking detail is not accidental. Nara has long been interested in objects that nest inside one another. His room-sized installations are built as huts and cabins that shelter smaller works, creating a mise en abyme of intimacy. Two mugs sitting one inside the other carry a faint echo of that idea, scaled down to the kitchen shelf. ABOUT THE ARTIST Yoshitomo Nara (奈良美智, b. 1959, Hirosaki) is one of the most influential Japanese artists working today. Round-headed children with piercing gazes populate his canvases and sculptures, images that have gone well beyond the art world to become a broader cultural phenomenon. Childhood in Aomori: Solitude, Nature, and Radio Waves Nara grew up in Hirosaki, a small city in Aomori Prefecture at the northern tip of Honshū. Both parents worked long hours, leaving young Yoshitomo to fend for himself after school. The Japanese have a word for children like him, kagikko, latchkey kids who come home to an empty house and learn to keep their own company. That early acquaintance with solitude runs through every painting. Look at any of Nara's figures and you will find a self-contained being who meets your eye with a steadiness that could be courage or could just as easily be vulnerability. During those solitary years, Western music reached him through the Far East Network (FEN), the U.S. Armed Forces radio station. Rock, folk, and later punk gave him a way to feel before painting ever did. As a young boy he bought his first record, Suzie Q, and has often said that album covers were his earliest art gallery. Later, he would design covers for Shonen Knife, R.E.M., and Bloodthirsty Butchers, and every exhibition he puts on is accompanied by a playlist of his own making. Education: Aichi and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf After earning a BFA (1985) and MFA (1987) at the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, Nara relocated to Germany to enrol at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the same school that had shaped Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter. Under Neo-Expressionist painter A.R. Penck (1991–1993), he received one piece of advice that stuck: "Paint on the canvas as if you are drawing." Bold, pared-back figures, large rounded heads set against bare backgrounds, began to take shape on his canvases. At the Kunstakademie's annual student show in 1992, visitors saw The Girl with the Knife in Her Hand (1991), a painting that crystallised the tension running through all of Nara's work: an apparently innocent girl holding a tiny knife, a gesture he reads not as aggression but as self-defence against a threatening adult world. Once finished with his studies, Nara settled in Cologne in 1994 and set up in a former cotton mill. Cut off by the language barrier, he turned painting into a conversation with himself, and it was in that solitude that the gaze people remember long after leaving the gallery first appeared. Return to Japan and International Acclaim Twelve years later, Nara came back to Japan. I DON'T MIND, IF YOU FORGET ME. opened at the Yokohama Museum of Art in 2001 and toured five Japanese venues, including Hirosaki. MoMA New York acquired 130 of his drawings around the same time, and the travelling retrospective Nothing Ever Happens (2003–2005) cemented his reputation in the United States. Within the Japanese "New Pop" wave, he shared the stage with artists such as Takashi Murakami, Makoto Aida, and Mariko Mori...
Porcelain
$1,000
Nara Girl Banging On A Drum With Limited Edition Sticker Set Pop Art Print
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Draper, UT
Banging the Drum DETAILS 27 x 17 inches (unframed), 2020 Offset lithograph 80# Classic Linen Solar White Cover
Lithograph
Marching on a Butterbur Leaf
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in London, GB
Yoshitomo Nara Marching on a butterbur leaf, 2019 Offset lithograph 24.02 x 17.99 in 61 x 45.7 cm Yoshitomo Nara’s prints are a captivating extension of h...
Offset
Yoshitomo Nara (1959) - Banging the Drum - lithograph on paper - 2020
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Varese, IT
Colour offset lithograph on paper, edited in 2020. Open Edition Not signed. Paper size: 68,6 x 43,2 cm Very good conditions. We offer professional packaging and tracked shipping wi...
Lithograph
Plush doll
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Washington , DC, DC
This plush doll by Yoshitomo Nara is of his very well known children, with their expression of innocence combined with pessimism. The hat is knitted and the...
Textile, Wool
YOSHITOMO NARA - LET'S TALK ABOUT "GLORY" Design modern pop art urban Japan
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Madrid, Madrid
Yoshitomo Nara - Let's talk about "Glory" Date of creation: 2011 Medium: Porcelain Edition: Open Size: Φ22 mm Condition: Brand new, inside its custom box Description: A Hasami ware porcelain plate reproducing Yoshitomo Nara's Let's Talk About "Glory" (2012), an acrylic-on-canvas painting where one of the artist's trademark children stares out with brow slightly furrowed and mouth set in a line that says she has heard what glory is and remains unconvinced. The original work, measuring roughly life-size, belongs to the period following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, when Nara's palette softened, his paint layers multiplied, and the angry scowls of his earlier figures gave way to a different register: heavy-lidded, searching, charged. "I was so depressed that I couldn't help feeling that what I'd been doing was totally meaningless," he later recalled. When the brushes finally came back out, the defiant scowls had gone. What replaced them was a gaze that holds more weight precisely because it asks for less. No raised fist, no bared fangs — just a pair of eyes that have seen something and are still deciding what to make of it. Like the rest of Nara's Hasami porcelain series, this plate is crafted in Nagasaki Prefecture, home to one of Japan's oldest ceramic traditions. Smooth and surprisingly heavy for its size, the body holds a print sharp enough to preserve the layered, almost translucent quality of Nara's post-2011 palette — the soft greens and muted flesh tones that replaced the flat, punchy colours of his earlier work. ABOUT THE ARTIST Yoshitomo Nara (奈良美智, b. 1959, Hirosaki) is one of the most influential Japanese artists working today. Round-headed children with piercing gazes populate his canvases and sculptures, images that have gone well beyond the art world to become a broader cultural phenomenon. Childhood in Aomori: Solitude, Nature, and Radio Waves Nara grew up in Hirosaki, a small city in Aomori Prefecture at the northern tip of Honshū. Both parents worked long hours, leaving young Yoshitomo to fend for himself after school. The Japanese have a word for children like him, kagikko, latchkey kids who come home to an empty house and learn to keep their own company. That early acquaintance with solitude runs through every painting. Look at any of Nara's figures and you will find a self-contained being who meets your eye with a steadiness that could be courage or could just as easily be vulnerability. During those solitary years, Western music reached him through the Far East Network (FEN), the U.S. Armed Forces radio station. Rock, folk, and later punk gave him a way to feel before painting ever did. As a young boy he bought his first record, Suzie Q, and has often said that album covers were his earliest art gallery. Later, he would design covers for Shonen Knife, R.E.M., and Bloodthirsty Butchers, and every exhibition he puts on is accompanied by a playlist of his own making. Education: Aichi and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf After earning a BFA (1985) and MFA (1987) at the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, Nara relocated to Germany to enrol at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the same school that had shaped Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter. Under Neo-Expressionist painter A.R. Penck (1991–1993), he received one piece of advice that stuck: "Paint on the canvas as if you are drawing." Bold, pared-back figures, large rounded heads set against bare backgrounds, began to take shape on his canvases. At the Kunstakademie's annual student show in 1992, visitors saw The Girl with the Knife in Her Hand (1991), a painting that crystallised the tension running through all of Nara's work: an apparently innocent girl holding a tiny knife, a gesture he reads not as aggression but as self-defence against a threatening adult world. Once finished with his studies, Nara settled in Cologne in 1994 and set up in a former cotton mill. Cut off by the language barrier, he turned painting into a conversation with himself, and it was in that solitude that the gaze people remember long after leaving the gallery first appeared. Return to Japan and International Acclaim Twelve years later, Nara came back to Japan. I DON'T MIND, IF YOU FORGET ME. opened at the Yokohama Museum of Art in 2001 and toured five Japanese venues, including Hirosaki. MoMA New York acquired 130 of his drawings around the same time, and the travelling retrospective Nothing Ever Happens (2003–2005) cemented his reputation in the United States. Within the Japanese "New Pop" wave, he shared the stage with artists such as Takashi Murakami, Makoto Aida, and Mariko Mori...
Porcelain
Yoshitomo Nara, Girl in the Moon - Limited Edition Plate, Japanese Art
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Hamburg, DE
Yoshitomo Nara (Japanese, born 1959) Girl in the Moon, 2022 Medium: Porcelain plate (fine bone china) Dimensions: 10 1/2 in diameter 26.7 cm diameter Edition of 250: Printed signatu...
Porcelain
Broken Treasures - Limited Edition Woodcut Print Pop Art Fine Art
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Manchester, GB
Yoshitomo Nara, Broken Treasures, 2012 Woodcut Print in Colours 42.2 x 29.5 cm 16.6 x 11.6 in Edition 14 of 50 Hand-signed, dated and numbered by the artist Unframed - please c...
Woodcut
Yoshitomo Nara - Little Bunny in the Box
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Little Bunny in the Box, 2023 Screenprint on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
Miss Spring
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Dubai, Dubai
YOSHITOMO NARA MISS SPRING, 2012/21 Digital Pigment Print on Takeo Deep PV Hakou paper 27.9 x 22.9 cm Edition of 100 (numbered 72/100 on the ARTSPACE certificate of authenticity). Ha...
Digital
$64,000
On the F-Word, 2002, Limited Edition of 35 by Yoshitomo Nara signed and numbered
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959)
On the F-Word, 2002
Medium: Intaglio on paper (photogravure and aquatint; 4 plates, 7 colors) Paper, PhotogravureEarly 2000s Yoshitomo Nara Art
Yoshitomo Nara - Light Haze Days Skateboard Deck (Set of 3)
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Light Haze Days Skateboard Deck Set, 2020 Silkscreen heat transfer on 100% FSC Canadian Maple Wood, produced in Europe 31 × 24 in 78.7 × 61 cm
Wood, Maple
Yoshitomo Nara - Midnight Truth
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Central, HK
Yoshitomo Nara Midnight Truth, 2017 Screenprint on paper 20 3/10 × 14 3/10 in 51.5 × 36.4 cm
Paper
Miss Spring poster (very rare, was not available to public)
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Washington , DC, DC
Extremely rare Yoshitomo Nara poster produced by Japanese publisher Mitsumura Book Publishing Co. as a sales promotional poster for teachers. Was not available to the public and we have never seen any others anywhere. Much more rare than the Yoshitomo Nara Cosmic...
Paper
Fire by Yoshitomo Nara
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Dubai, Dubai
Fire By Yoshitomo Nara 2025 Bamboo 23 x 3.5 x 1.5 cm
Resin, Plastic, Wood
The exhibition includes his portraits of wide-eyed kids with mayhem on their minds, as well as some of the artist’s personal belongings.
The forever-rebellious Japanese artist craftily defaces famous Edo Period woodblock prints with “In the Floating World.”