Macpro Gallery

Takashi Murakami (born in Tokyo on February 1, 1962) is a prolific contemporary Japanese artist who works in both fine arts media, such as painting & sculpture, as well as digital & commercial media (fashion, merchandise and animation) – and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. He coined the term “Superflat” which describes both the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of post-war Japanese culture and society. Superflat is also used as a moniker to describe Murakami’s own artistic style and that of other Japanese artists he has influenced. In 1996, Murakami launched the Hiropon Factory, his production workshop, in order to work on an increasingly larger scale and in a more diverse array of media. In 2001, Hiropon Factory was incorporated as Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd which he manages the careers of several younger artists and organizes the biannual art fair GEISAI started from 2002 at Tokyo and 2009 at Taiwan.

Murakami’s works show his comments on animation by which among those, perhaps “Mr. DOB” is the best to represent his personal style. He used “Mr. DOB” to announce the term “Superflat” and it was created by him in 1993. The outlook combines the well-known video game character – Sonic and cartoon character – Doraemon which they both have a blue body and white belly. His name originated from Japanese popular culture…...such that it is a hybrid with these elements resembles Mickey Mouse, right ear that says D, left ear says B with smiling face in between and his head is just an O. Mr. DOB has a variety of smile, sometimes look very cute, sometimes grim, deliberately naive in his appearance, maintain a typical Japanese style of cartoon character with big eyes.