Yoshitomo Nara is one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed contemporary artists, renowned for his psychologically complex depictions of children and animals that balance innocence with defiance. Educated at Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and later at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in Germany, Nara developed a visual language that channels the universality of childhood emotions—anger, wonder, solitude, and tenderness—through deceptively simple forms.

Nara’s works are held in major collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern  Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the Art Institute of  Chicago.