Mr. (b.1969) is the name of a popular artist who creates new artistic perspectives by rendering otaku culture such as manga, anime, and games in a contemporary art context. Since their debut in 1996, they have had a productive career that includes painting and a wide variety of other artistic media. As an artist who helped elevated Japanese pop culture as an artform his work attracts plaudits the world over. 

Beginning attendance at art school in 1993, he gradually came to harbor misgivings over traditional academic artistic expression and turned to the Italian movement of Arte Povera for inspiration, creating an installation that reflected his own chaotic lifestyle. However, the real turning point in his career was his encounter with the artist Takashi Murakami in 1996. By incorporating ideas gleaned from Murakami-san, Mr. found that he could use his own otaku sensibilities as a context for his work, and before long he was producing piece upon piece. Since 2000 he has been an ardent supporter of Murakami-san’s superflat (note) postmodern art movement, working hard to deepen the style’s sensibilities through is work. 

Memories from his early childhood home environment and school years, characters from formative anime and manga that left an impression on him, and a kind of gritty street sensibility all form a part of the soul of Mr.’s oeuvre. Interpreted artistically, these things culminate in a vision of Japan buried by the pace of its frenetic culture and fancy goods, a faithful recreation of modern daily life in the country. 

Mr.’s art captures the uncertainty and sensitivity of the teenage soul, presenting it as a confession of his own subconscious. Amidst the active scenes of many of his pieces there is a kind of vacuity, a sense of isolation born from the excess of stimulation. In representing these scenes and feelings so relatable in modern life he manages to create a self-portrait that is simultaneously a deeply revealing likeness of the social realities that face Japan, and a testament to the resilience of the artist himself. 

This exhibit features 80 total pieces including large paintings, sculptures, installations, and video footage—the first large-scale exhibition in the country to explore the essence and appeal of Mr.’s artwork. 

Note: Superflat refers to an art movement that demonstrates the continuity of Japanese visual culture by bridging the two-dimensionality of traditional Japanese painting with the visual expressions of contemporary anime and manga.

Cost:

General admission: 1,600￥ (1,400)
High school and university students: 1,000￥ (800)
Middle school and younger: free entry

The numbers in parentheses are pricing for groups of 20 or more, or for visitors over the age of 65. 

Reservations: Not required
Other: Tickets are required for entry