May 14 – Takashi Murakami is known for blending pop art and Asian fine art, but for his latest exhibition in New York, he’s going to Metaverse.
In the exhibition “An Arrow Through History” that opened this week at the Gagosian Gallery in Manhattan, Murakami connects traditional fine art, Japanese pop art, and bustling NFTs—the signature digital images that are original artworks.
Murakami told AFP he feared younger generations would be obsessed with screens and “not understand contemporary art history.”
“Ils peuvent profiter de très peu de choses, mais avec le plus de la réalité augmentée, peut-être que les jeunes ouvrent davantage les yeux et entrent ensuite dans la scène de l’art contemporain”, ja’ lartéistcla 60 years.
Recently, NFTs, which use the same blockchain technology as cryptocurrencies, have been promoted by athletes, artists, celebrities and tech stars.
“When working in a creative production, I make no distinction between digital and analog,” Murakami said in Gagosian’s statement.
“I always work in the context of contemporary art, and that context is whether I can participate in events that succeed in creating a knowledge revolution.”
“Into the Metaverse”
Murakami painted in one piece on thick canvas and wooden frames blue and white fish patterns, inspired by Chinese ceramic vases of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368).
Using Snapchat and an augmented reality filter, visitors can immerse themselves in the gallery via their phones, standing amongst digital photos of fish swimming among photorealistic artwork.
“Japanese culture originated on the Eurasian continent, and my concept was to reach further into the metaverse, traversing art history with one arrow,” Murakami said in the statement.
Metaverse is an immersive virtual reality that can be accessed using virtual or augmented reality glasses, a concept that has grown in recent years.
“I was watching reality in my house, so it was a very historic moment,” Murakami, who is stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic, told AFP.
“For us it was so stressful every day, we couldn’t get out,” he said, but his kids could enjoy virtual reality.
“That meant I had to change my mind, to fit in with the next generation of my children,” he said. “This is my first response – the offer.”
Murakami is also set to open a special exhibition at the Broad Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles called “Takashi Murakami: Walking on the Rainbow’s Tail,” which will include immersive environments and will run from May 21 through September 25. —AFP
Takashi Murakami settles into the Metaverse District for his latest exhibition in New York. – Photo by AFP
