San José Museum of Art

See what you think.

Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens

  • A ceramic face bows their round porcelain white head. Their eyes are closed and calm in thought—maybe sad, in concentration, or resting. Their lips are a small red line. They wear a bright yellow bonnet with small playful fabric lamblike ears.

    Yoshitomo Nara, Sheep from Your Dream, 1997, Fiberglass, resin, wood, lacquer paint, and cotton, 18 x 20 x 11 inches, Lindemann Collection, Miami Beach

  • A white ceramic child's head with big round green eyes. They are wearing a helmet that looks like a cloth vintage football player's helmet.

    Yoshitomo Nara, Round-Eyed Pilot, 1997, Fiberglass, resin, wood, lacquer paint, and cotton, 18 x 17 x 11 inches,

    Collection of Jacob and Ruth Bloom, Los Angeles

  • Yoshitomo Nara, Light My Fire, 2001, Acrylic, fabric, and wood, 74 x 29 x 43 inches, courtesy Frahm Ltd, London

  • Yoshitomo Nara, Untitled, 2002, Pencil and colored pencil on paper, 11 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York

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    Adored by everyone from art critics to punk kids, Nara's figures haunt galleries and museums, and adorn T-shirts, CD cases, ashtrays, and clocks. SJMA presented the Tokyo- based artist’s first major solo museum exhibition in the United States.

    The Koret Foundation was a major sponsor of the San Jose presentation of Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens, which was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. The traveling exhibition was sponsored by an anonymous donor with the additional support of the Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, The Japan Foundation, Toby Devan Lewis, The Peter Norton Family Foundation, Nancy and Joel Portnoy and Jennifer McSweeney Reuss.

    Traveled: Following its premiere at MOCA Cleveland, this exhibition traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Following its presentation at SJMA, it traveled to the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis and The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu.

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