Murakami's New Exhibition Traces His Artistic Journey from Superflat to NFTs

Murakami's new exhibition at Asian Art Museum surveys his career, featuring recent works inspired by failed NFT projects and economic theories.
His signature "superflat" philosophy links contemporary manga aesthetics to 17th-century Japanese styles.
After near-bankruptcy in 2020, Murakami explored NFTs like Clone X avatars and pixelated flowers, but the market crashed.
Earlier ambitious paintings show his evolution over 30 years, from Fukushima-inspired religious figures to 25-meter kabuki actor landscapes.
Though doubtful on more NFT releases, Murakami believes their artistic potential rivals pop art and pursues integrating them into fine art.

theguardian.com

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9/6/2023

NFT collapse and monster egos feature in new Murakami exhibition

Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami is reflecting on his first experience with NFT art, which coincided with the 2022 crypto collapse, in a new exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, where he explores the creation of original tokens and comments on the perversion and violence underlying Japan's otaku and kawaii subcultures. Murakami believes that NFT art will become more common in the future and aims to bridge the metaverse and the real world in the art scene.