Takashi Murakami's Upcoming New York Show Foregrounds Faith in the Face of Disaster

THE HUFFINGTON POST
By Matthew Israel

To be titled, 2014, acrylic and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on board, 118 1/8 x 118 1/8 inches
(300 x 300 cm) © 2014 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

NEW YORK---In retrospect we may consider the 2011 Great Tōhoku Earthquake and tsunami the major career-altering event for Takashi Murakami. Murakami's upcoming exhibition at Gagosian Gallery, titled "In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow," continues to take the earthquake and tsunami as its departure-point. According to the gallery, the show will feature an immersive installation of sculptures and paintings, which will investigate "the role of faith amid the inexorable transience and trauma of existence." More specifically, the works will merge "earlier faiths, myths, and images into a syncretic spirituality of the artist's imagination." [link]