Murakami is a Japanese born Pop Artist whose work takes innumerable forms, ranging from the standard paintings, sculptures and videos to toys, stickers, and t-shirts, fusing the categories of high and low art. His works are “cute”, cartoonish, and use very happy Japanese-anime styled icons – daisies, Mickey Mouse, cherries, mushrooms etc. His work seeks out the universal appeal found in characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario.
In 1996, he founded Tokyo’s Hiropon factory to aid him in the production of his work, having since opened workshops in Brooklyn and Paris. In 2001, the factory, which had expanded production significantly, became registered as Kaikai Kiki LLC. Kaikia Kiki is responsible for the mass creation his art and employs more than 100 workers, accountants and managers. Aside from managing his own artistic production, Kaikai Kiki is also designed to teach and aid the careers of emerging artists.
In 2000, he received much press for “Superflat,” his exhibition of Japanese art which attempted to traced the roots of contemporary Japanese art rooted in pop culture to historical Japanese art. Japanese artistic movements have remained a focus of his and in 2005, he began showing the exhibit “Little Boy: The Art of Japan’s Exploding Subcultures” in New York.
Other famous works include his early “Mr. DOB,” an almost psychedelic spin on Mickey Mouse as well as large-scale equally crazed, large-scale cartoons like “TanTan Bo Puking – a.k.a. Gero Tan”.
Works are contained within the public collections of Japan’s Contemporary Art Museum in Kanazawa and in Australia’s Queensland Museum in Brisbane. His pieces are also part of collections of renowned American museums including Museum of Modern Art, New York, Boston’s Museum of Fine Art, Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Modern Art located in San Francisco.

Murakami releases flower ball [ArtObserved]