Mr.
Photo by Guillaume Ziccarelli

Profile

After 20 years as Takashi Murakami’s protégé , Mr. has developed a career as an artist by focusing on anime and video game-esque renditions of everyday Japanese girls.

Singlehandedly undoing the stigma of producing paintings or drawings on paper in an anime style, Mr. has proved to be the first of his kind and the number of people following him on Japanese social networking sites like pixiv continues to grow dramatically.

Mr.’s body of work can be likened to the display of art in one’s own dirty bedroom. In fact, many of the new installation strategies which are emerging in Japan, as seen in events such as Tokyo’s “Chaos Lounge,” drew strong influence from Mr.’s practice.

After years spent laboring in the underground, Mr. is now becoming a major presence in the mainstream.

Career
1996 Graduated from Department of Fine Arts, Sokei Art School, Tokyo
1969 Born in Cupa
Solo Exhibitions
2022 "Mr.: You Can Hear the Song of This Town" Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, USA
2021 "Quotidianist" How Art Museum, Shanghai
2019 "A Call To Action" Musée Guimet, Paris
"Mr.’s Melancholy Walk Around the Town" Galerie Perrotin, Paris
2018 "People misunderstand me and the contents of my paintings. They just think they are nostalgic, cute, and look like Japanese anime. That may be true, but really, I paint daily in order to escape the devil that haunts my soul. The said devil also resides in my blood, and I cannot escape from it no matter how I wish. So I paint in resignation. " Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong
2017 "FLOATING IN THE AIR IN THE VICINITY OF A CONVENIENCE STORE" Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Hong Kong
2016 "Tokyo, the City I Know, at Dusk: It’s Like a Hollow in My Heart" Galerie Perrotin, Seoul
"Sunset in My Heart" Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY
2015 "lost -Mental sketch modified-" Hidari Zingaro, Tokyo
2014 "Live On: Mr.'s Japanese Neo-Pop" Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
2013 "Sweeet!" Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong
2012 "Metamorphosis: Give Me Your Wings" Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY
2010 "Solo Exhibition" Leeahn Gallery, Daegu, South Korea
2008 "Nobody Dies" Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY
2006 "Mr.," Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France
"Nin – stealth," Galerie Perrotin, Miami, FL
2004 "ISSEY x Mr., ISSEY MIYAKE by Naoki Takizawa," Tokyo, Japan
"Thank You for Your Hard Work," Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2003 Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
2001 "Venus #2," Vedanta Gallery, Chicago, IL
Group Exhibitions
2022 "Roppongi Art Night 2022", Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo
2021 "2021 Kaikai Kiki Autumn Show", Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
"HEALING x HEALING", Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
"Healing" Galerie Perrotin, Shanghai
2020 "Healing",Galerie Perrotin, Seoul
"Kaleidoscopes: Contemporary Portraiture" Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong
2019 "Bishojo: Young Pretty Girls in Art History" Museum of National Taipei University of Education, Taipei
"MURAKAMI VS MURAKAMI, Takashi Murakami's solo show" Tai Kwun Contempory, Hong Kong
2018 "Megane to Tabisuru Bijutsuten" AOMORI MUSEUM OF ART, Aomori; IWAMI ART MUSEUM, Shimane; Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Shizuoka, Japan
2017 "The Doraemon Exhibition Tokyo 2017" Mori Arts Center Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
"Yokohama Triennale 2017 "Islands, Constellations and Galapagos" " Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan
2015 "Animamix Biennale" Daegu Art Museum, South Korea
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