Downtown—(Feburary 1, 2018) Famed, eight-legged obsessed Japanese contemporary artist Takahashi Murakami celebrated his fifty-sixth birthday in style by previewing his wildly popular The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg pop art exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery for his first-ever retrospective in Canada of his forty-year career.
Full of audacious, brightly coloured artwork layered with critical commentary, the exhibition was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago—where it initially broke attendance records—and curated by Michael Darling and James W. Alsdorf.
I can best describe the comprehensive, chronological collection as a sensory overload and bubblegum selection of colourful art heavily inspired by everything from Japanese folklore to modern manga, anime, and pop culture.
For Murakami, his art is about survival and how he thrives on limitations, pressures, and deadlines. The sea creature title refers to a Japanese saying about sacrificing something of yourself in order to regenerate and ensure survival.
The self-deprecating Murakami was in fine spirits with an outlandish happy-go-lucky spirit and thoughtful answers when explaining the method behind his artwork. Many of his responses were explained as inside jokes about his own self-perceived lack of talent and only being able to recycle past ideas.
The exhibition features fifty-five different psychedelic paintings, sculptures, and pop art installations or pieces displaying Murakami's evolution as an artist and conflicted commentator spanning from 1982 until today.
The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg is now open to the public for a three-month long showing until May 6th at the VAG. To celebrate, things kicked off with the exclusive Murakami's Birthday Bash event.
More | YVArcade / CBC / Globe and Mail / Montecristo / Sad Mag / Seattle Times / Straight
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