Yoshitomo Nara

Yoshitomo Nara's girls stare back at you, and the first time I saw one I couldn't decide whether I was looking at something sweet or something menacing. The trick — if it is a trick — is that it isn't either. The figures are angry, and their anger is what makes them impossible to look away from. Cuteness is just the delivery mechanism. Born in Hirosaki, Aomori, in 1959, Nara studied at the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music and now lives and works in Nasushiobara, Tochigi. Since 1984 he has staged close to forty solo exhibitions, and his work sits in collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Very few Japanese contemporary artists have travelled that far internationally on such an instantly recognizable visual signature. He also works as a sculptor, photographer, printmaker and musician, which reads less like restlessness than like one sensibility testing every material it can reach.

Name (English)

Yoshitomo Nara

Name (Japanese)

奈良美智

Reading

なら よしとも

Born

December 5, 1959 (age 66)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Boar

Origin

Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

painter / sculptor / photographer / musician / printmaker

High school

Aomori Prefectural Hirosaki High School

University

Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music

• Official sitehttps://www.yoshitomonara.com
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/michinara3/
• Xhttps://x.com/michinara3
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitomo%20Nara
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A5%88%E8%89%AF%E7%BE%8E%E6%99%BA
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2015324

Tags

• Aomori Prefecture
• painter
• sculptor
• photographer

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.