See BYE BYE KITTY!!! before it closes!!!
The attention-grabbing exhibition “BYE BYE KITTY!!!” at Japan Society is designed to buck our modern day association with Japanese art with otaku (punk/goth/sailor moon/anime-style) and kawaii culture (cute/babydoll/victorian/Murakami-bright/happy face/ice cream cone-style). Curator David Elliot, founding Director of the Mori Art Museum, compiled sixteen emerging and mid-career Japanese artists whose work engages historical traditions in painting while “challenging visions of Japan’s troubled present and uncertain future.” Makoto Aida’s collages, for example, may feature short-skirted cartoon school girls, but they’ve been lampooned and are shown enacting the ancient samurai practice of ritual suicide. Yoshitomo Nara works in a similar vein with his untitled Hello Kitty memorial, complete with matching grey stone cartoon sentinels, guarding the not-so-cute tomb.
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