Last week while I was in Northern California for a few days, I checked out the "Nothing Ever Happens" exhibition of work by Yoshitomo Nara at the San Jose Museum of Art.
The exhibition, which defined Nara's work in four categories: pop, flat, cute, and punk, was organized by MOCA Cleveland and guest curated by Kristin Chambers. One of the first elements of the show that made an impression on me was the punk music wafting down the stairs as I browsed the first floor galleries of the museum. I followed the sound and ended up entering the exhibition somewhere in the middle, which was fine by me.
I started out by the stereo and photos of Nara at work in his studio, complete with a hand-scrawled list of all his favorite songs. Most refreshing to me was the idea of being engaged on more than one sensory level, and also how the set-up sort of double-looped the idea of art and fandom (Nara is a huge fan of some bands, and lots of kids today are huge fans of Nara) before I even entered the full exhibition and discovered that concept of "being a fan" to be a theme.
My favorite paintings were "Cat Girl," "Mountain Sisters," "Sprout the Ambassador," and "Knife Behind Back." The part of the exhibition I found most charming, however, was a side gallery with dozens of doodles and collected drawings pinned to the wall. In this section, it's clear that Nara experiments with different styles and makes it clear how elegantly refined, in terms of process, his easily recognizable popular work is. Also, I loved the little asides and captions, like "underground cliche," and "clear for landing," which, depending on the accompanying illustration, could be simply hilarious or profound.
The best one by far says: "Kinda sucks never having money, but kind a cool to choose a dream."
Most definitely.
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