Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959) is a leading Japanese contemporary artist widely recognized for his paintings of malevolent child characters. His cartoonishly simplified portraits of children, with their evil and sweet eyes, simple outlines, and subtle colors with multiple layers of paint, have attracted the attention of collectors and curators internationally.

Growing up in the war-torn countryside of northern Japan, Nara was influenced by Japanese anime, pop music, and European expressionism, and began drawing his signature child figures during his time in Germany in the 1990s.

Nara is currently exhibiting “Reach Out to The Moon, Even If We Can’t” at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth. The exhibition is Nara’s first solo show in Australia and focuses on the period when Nara’s practice expanded into sculpture, in 2011 when the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster occurred. After the accident, the artist took his hand off the painting brush for a while and began to create sculptural works in which he could touch and shape the clay with his direct hands.