Purple Art

[January 5 2022]

“Pinacoteca,” an exhibition by Yoshitomo Nara at Pace Gallery, London

Yoshitomo Nara’s practice expertly balances the aesthetics of material with thoughtful reflections on the human experience – pain, war, spirit, politics, loneliness, music, and nature. Borrowing it’s title from the Ancient Greco-Roman term for a public art salon, Pinacoteca is a specially crafted multi-room structure that imitates an exhibition space. Nara has meticulously designed every facet of the space to evoke a strong sense of place and emotion and create connections between viewer and environment. On the internal walls, newly created paintings on wood and canvas as well as drawings on paper, used envelopes, and cardboard boxes, are hung by the artist himself. Adorning the outside walls – which have been directly painted onto – Nara hangs new paintings on wood which are stylistically simpler and more graphic than the works inside the installation.

On view now until January 15 2022 at Pace Gallery
5 Hanover Square, London

Photos by Damian Griffiths