Open Studio: Yoshitomo Nara + YNG

In association with Asia Society

August 23 – 27, 2010

Open to the Public Daily
4:00pm - 7:00pm
FREE ADMISSION (number of viewers at any given time will be limited)
*All visitors must wear closed-toed shoes with a hard sole and shirts that cover their shoulders. Hard hats will be provided.

ASIA SOCIETY PRESENTS A MAJOR EXHIBITION OF WORK BY JAPANESE ARTIST
YOSHITOMO NARA

YOSHITOMO NARA: NOBODY’S FOOL
September 9, 2010 through January 2, 2011 at Asia Society

OPEN STUDIO: YOSHITOMO NARA + YNG
August 23–27, 4:00pm–7:00pm at Park Avenue Armory
       
Asia Society is collaborating with Park Avenue Armory, where Yoshitomo Nara and designer Hideki Toyoshima’s collaborative team, YNG, will undertake rebuilding the structure of the installation work, Home, and Nara will establish a temporary studio to create new drawings and other works that will be included in Asia Society Museum’s exhibition Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool. The YNG team is known to repurpose their past works by modifying their sizes, recycling their materials, and/or incorporating additional found materials, objects, and often new works by Nara, which gives them a new life in new locations.

August 23–27, 4:00pm–7:00pm there will be a 5-day “Open Studio” at Park Avenue Armory during which the general public is invited to view Nara’s temporary studio and YNG’s work in progress. After this open studio period, Nara’s new works and the installation will be moved to Asia Society Museum.

*IMPORTANT MESSAGE:
In order to enter the drill hall during construction, all visitors must wear closed toed shoes with a hard sole and shirts that cover their shoulders. Hard hats will be provided to all guests for the duration of their visit.
 
Exhibition Background

This fall, Asia Society devotes its entire museum space to a major exhibition of work by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, one of the most influential Neo Pop artists working today. More than one hundred works including drawings, paintings, sculptures, and large-scale installations—many of which have never been exhibited in the United States—will trace Nara’s artistic development over the last two decades.
           
Born in 1959 in Japan, where he presently lives and works, Nara is internationally recognized for his work, which has inspired an enormous cult following among youth in Japan and throughout Asia. Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool will emphasize the relationship between Nara’s art and rock and punk music which have been an ongoing source of inspiration and prevailing reference point in his work.
           
“For the first time in Asia Society’s history, the entire Museum will be devoted to the work of one contemporary artist,” notes Asia Society Museum Director Melissa Chiu, who cocurated the exhibition with the Museum’s Associate Curator Miwako Tezuka. “We think this is fitting, given Nara’s considerable body of work, often associated with manga and the Japanese Pop movement of the 1990s,” Chiu says. “Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool aims to shed new light on the artist’s practice, focusing on the pervasive influence of rock and punk music on Nara, through the exhibition’s content, thematic focus, and unique installations.”

Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool is accompanied by a fully illustrated 271-page catalog including contributions from the curators and leading contemporary art critics Midori Matsui and Michael Wilson, an extensive interview with Nara, and an essay by the artist’s long-time installation design collaborator Hideki Toyoshima. Published by Asia Society Museum in association with Abrams, New York, the book also includes select English translations of Nara Voice, the artist’s popular former blog.

For further information on the exhibition, Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool, please contact:
Elaine Merguerian (212) 327-9271