ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Mr.: You Can Hear the Song of This Town at Phoenix Art Museum is the first U.S. solo exhibition in more than five years to exclusively showcase the imaginative and visually complex works of contemporary Japanese artist Mr. A self-described member of the otaku subculture—characterized by obsessive interests in anime, manga, and reclusion into virtual fantasy worlds—Mr. creates feverish, graffiti-inspired paintings and cartoon-like sculptures, installations, and video works that combine high and low culture to examine themes of desire, fantasy, and trauma within Japanese society and among a global audience obsessed with social media.
The exhibition presents a number of the artist’s recent sculptures and paintings alongside a new 30-foot-long canvas that will enjoy its world premiere at Phoenix Art Museum. All featured works include Mr.’s signature childlike, kawaii-style characters with over-sized heads, wide eyes, and baby faces. Set against increasingly chaotic compositions, which echo the tumult and anguish that followed the immense loss of life in Japan during World War II and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, these subjects represent the artist’s wider reflection on the solitude, anxiety, and fear that define an otaku, or social outcast.
IMAGE CREDIT
Mr., Amy—Quiet Before Dawn, 2021. Acrylic on canvas mounted on wood panel. ©2021 Mr./Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London.
With its wide range of works, You Can Hear the Song of This Town offers Southwest audiences the rare opportunity to trace the stylistic evolution of one of the most popular Japanese artists working today. The exhibition also illuminates how Mr.’s singular neo-pop aesthetic—often thought to exist in a world all its own—is a direct descendent of abstract expressionism, 19th-century ukiyo-e prints, Pop Art, and Superflat, a contemporary postmodern Japanese movement launched by Takashi Murakami.
IMAGE CREDIT
Mr., You Girls, 2007. Acrylic on canvas. ©2007 Mr./Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London.
Installation view, Mr.: You Can Hear the Song of This Town, 2022, Phoenix Art Museum. ©Mr./Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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EXHIBITION SPONSORS
Mr.: You Can Hear The Song of This Town is organized by Phoenix Art Museum, with special thanks to Lehmann Maupin and Kaikai Kiki. It is made possible through the generosity of a Major Sponsor (Anonymous), Partner Sponsors Ronald and Valery Harrar and Men’s Arts Council, Supporting Sponsor Ms. Isabelle Georgeaux, and Contributing Sponsor Kevie Yang, with additional support from The Japan Foundation–Los Angeles and Kimpton Hotel Palomar.
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Phoenix Art Museum premieres major exhibition of anime- and manga-inspired works by Japanese contemporary artist Mr.
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