Yoshitomo Nara

10 Jun-31 Aug 2025

Overview

Dive into the captivating, creative world of Yoshitomo Nara in the largest European retrospective of one of Japan’s most celebrated artists.

Featuring more than 150 works in drawing, printmaking, painting, sculpture, installation and ceramics, this comprehensive exhibition offers audiences the opportunity to immerse themselves in Nara’s personal and creative worlds.

Celebrated across the globe for his powerful portraits with eyes that gaze back at the viewer, and his drawings that engage with daily experiences, Nara is also known for his wood, fibreglass and ceramic sculptures as well as his installations of little houses.

Nara’s work explores themes of resistance, rebellion, isolation, freedom and spirituality. This thematic exhibition reveals enduring influences on the artist’s work, particularly nature and its mythology, the peace movement, the significance of home, and his interest in punk and rock music and popular culture.

Born in 1959 in Japan’s Aomori prefecture, Yoshitomo Nara completed the Master of Fine Arts programme at the Aichi University of the Arts in 1987. Nara subsequently moved to Germany in 1988 and began his enrolment at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. After residing in Cologne, he returned to Japan in 2000.

He has exhibited in numerous museums and galleries in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Asia since the late 1990s.

This is an expanded version of the touring exhibition from the Guggenheim, Bilbao, and Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, featuring additional work, including early sculptures and new paintings.