"The majority of the public base their perception on the visible. I, however, am convinced that I am mainly influenced by invisible elements. Beneath the surface of the visible lie many things that remain imperceptible, apart from when we try hard to perceive them."
The Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara is a pioneering figure in contemporary art, known for his soft yet dark paintings of children and animals whose large, expressive eyes convey emotional power. A contemporary of Takashi Murakami in the Japanese neo-pop movement, he is influenced by Eastern and Western popular culture. His distinctive style portrays children in a range of emotional states ranging from resistance and rebellion to stillness and contemplation. Nara’s works draw on several sources; they depict children whose features and expressions recall the masks worn by the actors of traditional Japanese theater, "Otafuku" and "Okama", symbols of happiness and luck. Nara mixes the manga universe of his childhood and the Western musical references of the 1990s so dear to him witih these classic cultural touchstones.