Inside A Murakami Monster Mash-Up At San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum
Things definitely got a bit weird at the Asian Art Museum’s Annual Gala—but in a good way—owed to Takashi Murakami and the outrageously colorful creatures that leap to life from his inimitable imagination.
Celebrating the opening of Takashi Murakami: Unfamiliar People – Swelling of Monsterized Human Ego, more than 300 guests turned out to welcome the artist for his first solo exhibition in the Bay Area, which included several hundred works comprised mostly of large-scale paintings and hordes of loveably grotesque sculptures. Many of the pieces were completed during the pandemic as an exploration of the cultural shift that took place when personal interaction became virtual, and the artist’s optimism toward a digitally liberated future.
Standout pieces included the monumental 82-foot-long acrylic on canvas titled Judgement Day that was started in July and completed just prior to installation. The seminal work—spanning an entire gallery wall—is the first major work of this scale to explore Ukiyo-e, the Edo-period print culture that took shape in the 17th century. Similarly, 108 Temptations MURAKAMI.FLOWERS 2023 is a fairly sizable work consisting of 110 smaller paintings of the artist’s signature smiling flowers. But while these happy-go-lucky beings—in a kaleidoscope of primary colors—might appear overly joyful, they have a slightly darker undertone as Murakami explained to T&C. “When I was a child, the Ultraman and Ultraseven [science fiction] series were the major hero shows [in Japan] that I really empathized with,” he said. “Later I realized the writers and people on the production side of these shows had physical and emotional scars left by war—like Vietnam which was going on at the time. So, when people—in particular children—look at my smiling flowers, they can usually feel something unsettling or worrisome on the side of their creator.”
The evening began with a festive cocktail reception in Bogart Court, followed by a lavish tented dinner catered by McCalls on the museum’s newly completed East West Bank Art Terrace—both vibrantly decorated by J. Riccardo Benavides—that included a performance by Str8jacket Dance Company, and an afterparty sponsored by 181 Fremont Residences in Samsung Hall that saw an additional 200 revelers who danced late into the night to the sounds of Oyster Ventures partner and prolific Bay Area DJ Chris DN.
Joining Murakami, museum director Jay Xu, exhibition curator Laura Allen, and Gala Chairs Sandra and Harry Cheung—as well as committee members Cori Bates, Eliza Cash, Selina Cha, Steve Chen, Huifen Chan, Martha Herteledy, Fred Levin, Gorretti Lo Lui, Shweta Mehta, Anjali Pichai, Varsha Rao, Vijay Shriram, Mindy Sun, Rosina Sun, Michelle Tai, Akiko Yamazaki, Salle Yoo, and Songyee Yoon—were an equally vibrant cast of characters including: Tianjin Ren, Betty Yu, Catherine Dao, Komal Shah, Kathryn and Bo Lasater, Mary Beth and David Shimmon, Lisa and Doug Goldman, Roelof Botha, Maryam Muduroglu, Barbro Osher, Meron Foster, Lisa and Jim Zanze, Joel Goodrich, Matt Lituchy, Lily Lin, and Andrew Lieberman.
Jay Xu, Salle Yoo, Sandra Cheung, and Fred Levin
Takashi Murakami
Rosina Sun, Huifen Chan, Eliza Cash, Sandra Cheung, Takashi Murakami, Akiko Yamazaki, Gorretti Lui, and Tiffany Chang
Komal Shah and Mary Beth Shimmon
Kathryn Lasater and Bo Lasater
Jessica Abea and Chris DN
Doug Goldman and Lisa Goldman
Harry Cheung and Sandra Cheung
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