Known for his collaborations with pop icon Kanye West and fashion house Louis Vuitton, and for vibrant anime-inspired characters, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami (b. 1962) has blurred the boundaries throughout his career between high and low culture, ancient and modern, East and West. This summer the MCA presents a major retrospective of his paintings, featuring 50 works that span three decades of his career. 

The exhibition shows how Murakami’s increasingly complex art is filled with characters and scenarios both cute and menacing, saccharine sweet and critically acidic. His work is rooted in traditions of Japanese painting and folklore with an eye for the contemporary influences of globalization, media culture and the continued threats of nuclear power. 

Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago from June 6–Septemper 24, 2017. 220 E. Chicago Avenue,  mcachicago.org

Top image: Cover image for Summer 2017 issue of Chicago Gallery News. Takashi Murakami, ZuZaZaZaZaZa (detail), 1994. Takahashi Collection. © 1994 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Photo: Norihiro Ueno