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who is yoshitomo nara?
"In Tokyo, I fell in love..." // Yoshitomo Nara's life and his artistic influences
In Tokyo, I fell in love… with a painting.
During a quick three-day trip to Tokyo with my family in 2023, my family and I arrived at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi. We were there for STARS: Six Contemporary Artists from Japan to the World, a great exhibition spotlighting some of the country’s most influential artists. And there she was, in a dimly lit corner of the gallery, that I first saw Miss Moonlight by Yoshitomo Nara. I have to admit: I was a little starstruck.
Nara’s piece stood in striking contrast to much of the other artworks in the show, which my mom (a graphic designer) and I both agreed leaned into the more cerebral and abstract. Contemporary art, at times, can feel like a puzzle: the joy is in the work of uncovering and feeling the emotions that arise when witnessing something. The puzzles don’t always necessarily require an art history degree to appreciate, but often asks viewers to slow down and dig deep… and ruminate for a long time. So after encountering more conceptual and complex installations (like a film of a donut suspended in the forest or an all-white canvas) it felt so relaxing and serene to turn a corner and be met with the quiet glow of Miss Moonlight.
That moment felt like a breath.
That isn’t to say Nara’s work isn’t complex or interesting, but it’s evident that the reaction and feelings evoked by the piece are very intentional, drawing a lot of parallels to artists like Mark Rothko. Both artists usually play with large canvases and thoughtful swaths of color to evoke that still, calm feeling. Many describe Nara’s work as “serene,” and that’s certainly true of Miss Moonlight. But as I’ll explore in this post, serenity is just one facet of Nara’s artistic inner world, rather one that’s just as much about vulnerability, rebellion, and memory as it is about searching for peace.
COMING UP:
Yoshitomo Nara’s background
Subject matter and main influences in Nara’s artwork
Pieces by him I’m looking forward to seeing IRL
If you like what I’m talking about, you might want to check out my other articles on artists like Artemisia Gentileschi, Andy Warhol, or an under-the-radar 70’s experimental avant garde artist from Korea. Or maybe you’re even interested in Korean celadon ceramic ware?
SIDE NOTE: During my research, I found this playlist he made for Museo Guggenheim Bilbao! (This museum has put Bilbao on the number one spot on my travel list, because I also love Richard Serra’s work.)
Who is Yoshitomo Nara?
Yoshitomo Nara (born 1959 in Aomori, Japan) is one of the most beloved and singular voices in contemporary art. Raised as a “latchkey child” on the northern island of Honshu, Nara found early solace in music, tuning into American radio stations playing 60s folk and 70s punk, and in drawing while wandering abandoned sites alone. These formative experiences etched themselves into the emotional fabric of his work.
After completing his MFA at Aichi University of the Arts in 1987, Nara moved to Germany in 1988 to study at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, living in Cologne until his return to Japan in 2000. Some important moments in his life include when he first moved to Germany and dealt with the loneliness of being a foreigner and navigating the language barrier.
While often associated with the aesthetics of kawaii and American twee (think indie pop of 2000s and 2010s, the indie aesthetic, A-line babydoll dresses, Zooey Deschanel, you know what I mean), his work stands apart from the Japanese Neo-Pop contemporaries of his era (such as Takashi Murakami), forging a deeply introspective and humanistic visual language while staying true to his own distinct style and building his own aesthetic. He’s also talked about the devastating impact of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which led to him to seek out more illuminating and emotional aspects of his work (like we see with Miss Moonlight).
Across drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and installation, some of Nara’s figures (usually big-headed girls with fierce eyes, often holding “scary” objects like saws or matches) are tender yet defiant, evoking both innocence and rebellion. It is evident that these figures have resonated with and captured the hearts of so many people across the world. Whether it be young girls, animals, or hybrid figures, they’ve been described as self-portraits and stand-ins for the weak, the honest, the overlooked in society.
Nara’s art draws from a lifetime of cultural cross-pollination: his memories of childhood, his time in Germany, his deep love of music and literature, and his travels across Asia and Europe. The result is a body of work that quietly stirs the viewer’s imagination, occupying a space between worlds, between play and pain, child and adult, Japan and the West.
Ultimately, Nara is an incredibly unique artist who is influenced by all these different parts of his life. They all come together in a truly beautiful way and it’s amazing to see him engage with his own memory and nostalgia.
Yoshitomo Nara’s Main Influences
Post-War Japanese Culture and Isolation: Growing up in a remote town with few peers and a single-parent household, Nara developed a rich interior life. His childhood sense of loneliness and alienation remains a key theme in his work. Additionally, he’s influenced by large societal events like the 2011 earthquake in Japan and global wars.
Western Rock and Punk Music: Music plays a vital role in Nara’s creative process. He often listens to Western rock and punk bands (like Ramones, Nirvana, and The Beatles) while working, and their spirit of rebellion and emotional intensity can be seen in the defiant postures and punkish aesthetics of his figures.
German Neo-Expressionism: His time in Germany studying under artist A.R. Penck exposed him to Neo-Expressionist styles (and who encouraged him to “paint on the canvas as if he is drawing”), which gave his work a raw emotional charge and introduced more painterly, textured approaches to his canvases.
Children’s Picture Books and Folk Art: Nara has cited his love for Western children’s book illustrations and traditional Japanese folk art, blending innocence with a subtle rebelliousness and dangerousness that defines his visual paradoxes.
What I Want to See IRL
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, United States), "Miss Forest (LACMA Version)." One of his sculptural pieces and a permanent installation at LACMA, I don’t know how I missed it last time I was there in 2021… But it’s been a part of the museum since 2020.
Hayward Gallery’s (London, UK) upcoming exhibition on Yoshitomo Nara. A touring exhibition that is an expanded version of the one that was from Guggenheim, Bilbao, and Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden. This exhibit includes additional work, including earlier sculptures AND new paintings. Happening June 10-August 31, 2025.
Final Thoughts
It’s clear to me that Yoshitomo Nara is for the girls who collect things: memories, ticket stubs, gift wrap, scraps of lace, the soft things that hold quiet meaning. For the ones who curate their inner world with care because the outer one and society just never quite fit. His work speaks to those who built their own universe from fragments, who found beauty in the overlooked and created a language all their own. Nara’s art isn’t just something you see but rather it’s something you recognize in yourself.
That’s all for today! Have a good one :)
Skylar xx
Sources:
- https://www.pacegallery.com/journal/nara-a-timeline-1988-2023/
- https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/yoshitomo-nara
- https://unframed.lacma.org/2021/03/10/yoshitomo-nara-conversation-curator-mika-yoshitake
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/t-magazine/yoshitomo-nara.html
- https://www.mori.art.museum/en/collection/6103/index.html
- https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/exhibitions/yoshitomo-nara
- https://www.moma.org/artists/25523-yoshitomo-nara
- https://www.yoshitomonara.org/en/biography/