If you don\u2019t know Takashi Murakami by name, you\u2019ve most definitely seen his work.<\/p>\n
The Japanese artist has worked with fashion designers, K-pop bands and rappers. He\u2019s lent his artwork to famous albums such as Kanye West\u2019s Graduation and Juice WRLD\u2019s The Party Never Ends. He\u2019s responsible for one of the most photographed handbags of the 2000s, featuring Louis Vuitton\u2019s LV monogram in multiple colours. And he\u2019s launched a range of T-shirts with Uniqlo and Billie Eilish, adorned with his signature animated flowers, to name but a few projects.<\/p>\n
Opening in December, a major Murakami retrospective<\/a> \u2013 spanning 30 years and more than 150 works by the influential artist \u2013 is coming to the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW). Six months out from the show, tickets have already gone on sale.<\/p>\n \u201c[Takashi] doesn\u2019t see any boundary to what art can be,\u201d says Melanie Eastburn, senior curator of Asian art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW). \u201cIf a challenge catches his imagination, he\u2019ll run with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Eastburn and the AGNSW have a longstanding relationship with Murakami, who is often compared to Andy Warhol for his ability to bridge fine art and pop culture. In 2019, the gallery commissioned him to create a painting inspired by the mythic beings of Japan\u2019s Edo period, as part of its Japan Supernatural<\/a> exhibition. The large-scale painting featured a rainbow-eyed feline yokai (supernatural being) surrounded by samurai.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t know it at the time, but that painting changed the direction of his art,\u201d Eastburn says. \u201cHe\u2019s trained in Japanese painting and has a PhD in nihonga painting, but it was working on that commission that made him look more at ukiyo-e printmaking (a traditional woodblock printing process), which has developed considerably since then.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2026 show charts three decades of his career, including his early characters like Mr DOB, created in 1993 (sometimes interpreted as Murakami\u2019s alter ego) and Kaikai and Kiki, created in 2000 (who represent innocence and mischievousness). Plus, Murakami\u2019s signature Superflat aesthetic, a postmodern art movement founded by the artist.<\/p>\n Murakami\u2019s paintings, sculptures, video and installations will fill the Nelson Packer Tank, the Ainsworth Family Gallery and the Naala Badu building.<\/p>\n One of the works that Eastburn is particularly excited to share is a 2023 painting called Judgement Day, a sprawling 25-metre-long, three-metre-tall masterpiece. \u201cYou could do an exhibition that was just that painting and it would be enough,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n Another highlight is a dark room of four paintings representing the cardinal directions of Kyoto. \u201cThere\u2019s a phoenix, a dragon, a turtle and a tiger. I want each room to have a different feeling, and for each one to be a memorable visceral experience.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019ll be brand-new commissions too, especially in the tank space. \u201cThere are various concepts being explored, but it will be quite spellbinding. He really wants to create somewhere that\u2019s joyful and almost a bit of a wonderland.\u201d<\/p>\n Murakami will be in Sydney in December for the opening weekend and a string of events connected to the new exhibition. \u201cHe is someone who becomes interested in lots of things and takes them to the fullest extent of possibility, no matter what it is,\u201d says Eastburn, who has visited Murakami\u2019s studio in Miyoshi, about an hour outside of Tokyo.<\/p>\n The studio operates 24 hours a day, with hundreds of employees across his wider company Kaikai Kiki Co Ltd. \u201cHe sometimes equates it to more like a film studio,\u201d Eastburn says. \u201cThey breed giant stag beetles, and look after endangered Japanese turtles. It\u2019s a fascinating place.\u201d<\/p>\n Takashi Murakami is part of the 2026-27 Sydney International Art Series, which includes Philippe Parreno: 5 Moons at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia<\/a>, opening on November 21, 2026.<\/p>\n