A lightning rod between different cultural valencies (high/low, ancient/modern, oriental/occidental), Takashi Murakami has stated that the artist is someone who understands the borders between worlds and who makes an effort to know them. With his distinctive "Superflat" style and ethos, which employs highly refined classical Japanese painting techniques to depict a super-charged mix of Pop, animé and otaku content within a flattened representational picture-plane, he moves freely within an ever-expanding field of aesthetic issues and cultural inspirations. Parallel to utopian and dystopian themes, he recollects and revitalizes narratives of transcendence and enlightenment, often involving outsider-savants. Mining religious and secular subjects favored by the so-called Japanese "eccentrics" or non-conformist artists of the Early Modern era commonly considered to be counterparts of the Western Romantic tradition, Murakami situates himself within their legacy of bold and lively individualism in a manner that is entirely his own and of his time.

Takashi Murakami was born in 1962 in Tokyo, and received his BFA, MFA and PhD from the Tokyo University of the Arts (formerly the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music). He founded the Hiropon factory in Tokyo in 1996, which later evolved into Kaikai Kiki, an art production and art management corporation. In addition to the production and marketing of Murakami's art and related work, Kaikai Kiki functions as a supportive environment for the fostering of emerging artists. Murakami's major solo exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2001); Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris; Serpentine Gallery, London (2002); Château de Versailles, France (2010). A comprehensive survey exhibition “© MURAKAMI” opened at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2007 and traveled to Brooklyn Museum, New York, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, and Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao during 2008–09. In his 2012 exhibition “Murakami-Ego” at the Al Riwaq Hall in Doha, Qatar, the centerpiece was an astonishing 100 meter painting inspired by the Tōhoku earthquake.

Murakami is also a curator, cultural entrepreneur and critical observer of contemporary Japanese society. In 2000, he organized a paradigmatic exhibition of Japanese art titled “Superflat,” which traced the origins of contemporary Japanese visual pop culture in historical Japanese art. He has continued this work in subsequent impactful exhibitions such as "Coloriage" (Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, 2002) and “Little Boy: The Art of Japan's Exploding Subcultures” (Japan Society, New York, 2005). In 2011, he organized the "New Day: Artists for Japan" international charity auction at Christie’s New York in response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Murakami currently lives and works in Tokyo.

Selected Exhibitions

2020
Superflat Doraemon, Galerie Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan
Gallery Collection, Whitestone Gallery, Nagano, Japan

2019
Baka, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
From Superflat to Bubblewrap, STPI - Creative Workshop & Gallery, Singapore
An Exhibition for Notre-Dame, Gagosian, Paris, France
Takashi Murakami in Wonderland, Galerie Perrotin, Shanghai, China
Murakami vs Murakami, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong

2018
"America Too", Gagosian, Beverly Hills
Change the Rule!, Gagosian, Hong Kong
Brilliant Hues: The Power of Red and Gold, Opera Gallery, Singapore

2017
The Octopus Eats Its Own Legs, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago
Takashi Murakami, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway
On the Origin of Art, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Australia
Juxtapoz x Superflat, Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada

2016
Takashi Murakami: Learning the Magic of Painting, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
Nude: From Modigliani to Currin, Gagosian Gallery, New York
Frenemies: Art Versus Commodity, University Art Museum, California State University
Takashi Murakami's Superflat Collection, Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan

2015
Takashi Murakami: The 500 Arhats, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
The Shape of Time, Gagosian Gallery, Hong Kong
Takashi Murakami: Enso, Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Takashi Murakami: In the Land of the Dead, Gagosian Gallery, New York

2014
Hired Hands, The Art Institute of Chicago
Beg, Borrow and Steal from the Rubell Family Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Virginia
Group Show, Galerie Delaive, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2013
Don't Be Shy, Don't Hold Back, The Logan Collection At Sfmoma, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
Beg, Borrow and Steal, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA
sous influences, arts plastiques et psychotropes, La Maison Rouge, Paris

2012
"Ego", ALRIWAQ Exhibition Space, Qatar,

2011
"Beyond Limits", Chatsworth, England
“Homage to Yves Klein“, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
“A History of Editions“, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
“Solo Exhibition” Gagosian Gallery, London, England

2010
“Solo Exhibition” Gagosian Gallery, Rome, Italy
“MURAKAMI VERSAILLES” Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France

2009
Murakami, Museum Fë Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, Germany (solo) 
Murakami, The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain (solo) 
Gagosian Gallery, London, England (solo) 
“Sold Out: The Artist in the Age of Pop,” Tate Modern, London, England
“Mapping the Studio,” Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
“VRAOUM!,” La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
“Louis Vuitton and the Passion for Creation,” Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong 
“Hong Kong Art Fair,” Hong Kong
“Un Certain État du Monde? A Selection of Works From Francois Pinault Foundation Collection", Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia

2008
Murakami, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY (solo)
“For What You Are About to Receive,” Gagosian Gallery, Moscow, Russia
“Encounters,” Pace Beijing, Beijing
“Agency: Art and Advertising,” McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH
"Kaikai Kiki Artists," Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2007
Red Hot: Contemporary Asian Art Rising, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Comic Abstraction, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Jellyfish Eyes, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
My 2007, Colette, Paris, France
Murakami, MOCA, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
Tranquility of the Heart Torment of the Flesh - Open Wide the Eye of the Heart, and Nothing is Invisible, Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY (solo)

2006
The Pressure Point of Painting, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France (solo)
Where are we going, Selection from the François Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
Infinite Painting, Contemporary Painting and Global Realism, Villa Manin Centro d’Arte Contemporanea, Codroipo, Italy
Agnes Hotel Art Fair, Tokyo, JapanFairy Tales Forever, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
Dragon Veines, University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL
POPulence, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
10th Anniversary Collection, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japon
Spank the Monkey, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
Selections from the logan Collection, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Off the Shelf: News Forms in Contemporary Artists' Books, 
Vassar College print and Drawings Galleries: The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Get Ready, Land of the Rising Sun! Contemporary Japanese Art from Taikan Yokoyama to the Present, Osaka City Museum of Modern Art
Mass Production: Artists' Multiples and Marketplace, The university of Akron, Myers School of Art, Akron, OH
Limited/Unlimited, 34 Long Fine Arts, Cape Town, South Africa

2005
Opening of Gallery Extension, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France (solo)
Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Pop Culture, Japan Society, New York, NY (solo)
Outdoor Banner Installation, Public Art Fund, New York, NY (solo)
Kaikai Kiki exhibition, Aoi Gallery, Osaka, Japan
T1 - Turin Triennial, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
Japan Pop, Helsinki Museum of Art, Helsinki, Finland
Post and After, Brandeis University Rose Museum, Boston, MA
POPulance, Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
Translation, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FranceEcstasy : In and About Altered States, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA

Selected Public Collections

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, US  
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan  
Center for CUratorial Studies Museum, Bard College, New York, NY, US  
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA  
Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev, Ukraine  
Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea  
Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Australia  
Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, QLD, Australia  
Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium  
Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, France  
Musée du sourire, Paris, France  
Rosenblum Collection & Friends, Paris, France  
Punta della Dogana - Francois Pinault Foundation, Venice, Italy  
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan  
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art - Kanazawa, Kanazawa, Japan  
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota Aichi, Japan  
MFA - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA, USA