TAKASHI MURAKAMI

Perrotin is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Takashi Murakami at 2bis avenue Matignon.

October 15 – November 23, 2024

For years now, exhibitions of Takashi Murakami’s work have come to resemble family reunions or new episodes of a longlasting television series. Or at least they share certain qualities with them—in particular, a cast of familiar and endearing characters who reappear in different forms, depending on the context and the medium (sculpture, painting, or video). Smiling flowers, mischievous looking character with two ears, mushrooms with dozens of eyes—the (often very popular) mascots invented by the Japanese artist over the last three decades awaken upon each new occasion, revealing in different spaces and presentations new facets of his bountiful imagination.

This imagination is like an extraordinary garden where, as if in a parallel dimension, all these beings live together and give free rein to their emotions. While some of them seem to make trouble, carried away by anger or harmless lunacy, most of them express an infectious joy in a carefree spirit—certainly the source of the powerful appeal Murakami’s work holds.

This approach is quite visible at Perrotin, where the artist has a new solo show this autumn. It brings together many of Murakami's favorite characters, which seem to form a group although they are on separate wood panels.

Therein lies the very essence of the artistic ambiguity of Murakami’s transgressive, iconoclastic work.