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Takashi Murakami NFT Married at Gagosian
World renowned artist Takashi Murakami is giving away free NFTs! Murakami fans can mint special edition NFTs at an upcoming art exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery in Le Bourget, France. What do we know about this art exhibition?
Image credit: Whitewall Magazine
What’s up with Takashi Murakami’s new art exhibition?
Murakami’s latest show is called “Understanding the New Cognitive Domain”. The exhibition shows some of the artist’s most famous larger paintings, smaller pieces and several sculptures. In addition, the show will debut a new Murakami piece.
The new painting is based on iwai-maku, a specially made stage carpet that is traditionally used to commemorate a family member. The 5 x 23 meter painting pays tribute to Japanese Kabuki actor and producer Ichikawa Ebizo XI’s assumption of the name Ichikawa Danju ̄roˉ XIII. The work’s design was first unveiled in November 2022 at Ichikawa’s Shinnosuke VIII’s first performance, and this event marks the first time it will be shown to the general public.
The exhibition will also contain another painting in an expanded format. Murakami-produced “Dragon in Clouds – Indigo Blue” uses a limited color palette and sprawls across several merged sections. The eccentric Japanese artist Soga Shohaku inspired the work with the painting “Dragon and Clouds” created in 1763. Like Soga Shohaku’s work, Murakami focuses on a dragon in flight, a Buddhist symbol of optimism and luck.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Murakami then shows his artistic range with a painting inspired by Mike Kelley’s 1988 piece “Pay for Your Pleasure”. Kelley’s work uses an aesthetic reminiscent of 1980s computer graphics to create a series of banners. These banners feature various artists and writers along with quotes about creative genius. Murakami replaced Kelley’s artists and writers with major economic figures from history, including the Sumerians, Sima Qian, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Satoshi Nakamoto, Vitalik Buterin and Elon Musk. It even has the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
So what does this have to do with NFTs?
The collection also contains works that refer to Murakami’s various NFT projects. There are “lucky cat” paintings and pieces that feature Murakami’s smiling flower characters. Indeed, one of the highlights of the show is a two-metre rainbow neon sign of a Murakami flower in the artist’s trademark Superflat aesthetic.
Furthermore, there are two futuristic anime-style mirrored figures representing the Clone X NFT collection. Murakami famously contributed work to the project, helping catapult the collection to NFT blue-chip status during the NFT bull market. Murakami’s ability to draw inspiration from work from different eras from the 18th century to the metaverse is a testament to the artist’s respect for the past combined with his fascination for future trends.
The juicy part for NFT collectors, however, is that Murakami designed a special NFT gift for the event. Visitors on the opening day of the exhibition can go to a special gift booth to stamp NFT for free. The supply is limited to one per person and will be available from 15.00 to 18.00.
