London Art Fair returns in January to launch the international art calendar for 2025. Visit from 22 - 26 January 2025
Get 20% OFF London Art Fair Tickets using CODE: ARTPLUGGED 👉 Book Here

Takashi Murakami: An Arrow through History

Takashi Murakami: An Arrow through History
Last updated:

Takashi Murakami: An Arrow through History
11 May–25 June 2022
Gagosian
980 Madison Avenue
New York, 10075
USA

Gagosian is pleased to announce an exhibition of never-before-seen works by Takashi Murakami, opening on May 11, 2022. With three simultaneous presentations spanning two of Gagosian’s New York galleries, at 976 and 980 Madison Avenue, An Arrow through History bridges his art in digital and physical realms and will be augmented by experiential virtual components. This will be Murakami’s first exhibition at Gagosian in New York since 2014 and represents a return for the artist to 980 Madison Avenue, where he had his inaugural exhibition with the gallery in 2007.

Murakami’s presentation at 976 Madison Avenue will consist of paintings and sculptures based on the CloneX NFT initiative (2021), which he developed in collaboration with RTFKT Studios. CloneX is a series of NFT avatars conceived as three-dimensional figures bearing his distinctive motifs. The fifth floor of 980 Madison Avenue will be devoted to paintings and sculptures related to the artist’s Murakami.Flowers NFT project (2021–2022).

Takashi Murakami: An Arrow through History
Takashi Murakami, CLONE X #1 Murakami Arhat, (2022) (detail). Acrylic on canvas mounted on aluminium frame. 150 × 150 cm.  © 2022 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co Ltd. Courtesy Gagosian.

Physical manifestations of the artist’s newest series of iconic flowers in multiple permutations of colors and features, they combine his Superflat aesthetic with a style that evokes nostalgia for the pixelated graphics of 1980s video games, especially those played on the Nintendo Famicon console. The sixth floor of 980 Madison Avenue is dedicated to new paintings on circular canvases inspired by a fish motif on a Qinghua blue-and-white porcelain vase that dates from China’s Yuan dynasty (c. 1279–1368) and by Murakami’s childhood memories of riverside journeys with his father, during which he observed anglers fishing for carp.

Takashi Murakami: An Arrow through History
Takashi Murakami, Qinghua: After Kitaōji Rosanjin (2022). Acrylic on canvas mounted on wood panel. 150 × 150 cm. © 2022 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Courtesy Gagosian.

An Arrow through History will open in New York just ahead of a special exhibition dedicated to Murakami at the Broad in Los Angeles. Featuring all of the museum’s Murakami works and new immersive environments, Takashi Murakami: Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow marks the artist’s first solo exhibition at the Broad, and will be on view from May 21 through September 25, 2022.

Gagosian is also pleased to announce that the gallery now accepts cryptocurrency. Through a partnership with Coinbase, payments will be accepted in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and USD Coin (USDC).

Takashi Murakami: An Arrow through History opens on the 11th of May until the 25th of June 2022 at Gagosian

©2022 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co Ltd Gagosian