Alice Pelot
Dairy Art Center: London, 7a Wakefield Street, Bloomsbury, WC1N 1PG
3 October - 7 December
Dairy Art Center: London, 7a Wakefield Street, Bloomsbury, WC1N 1PG
3 October - 7 December
Monolithic and totemic sculptures, luminous acrylic paintings and large collection of playful sketches by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara are on display at the Dairy Art Centre until December 7th. Though his work has been represented by Stephen Friedman in Mayfair, Dairy is the largest space in London a solo exhibition of his work has yet been installed.
Nara's work has been connected with the literary angst and aggression of Punk Rock, a connection which can bee seen in his use of language such as 'Rock You', and 'This machine kills Fascists', written in a graffiti style. The aesthetic of the doe-eyed children painted mostly in deeply layered blocks of colour, have been likened to both a Menga and Disney style, accounting for his Japanese heritage and the education he received in West Germany. Despite these subjective attributions, his works at Dairy make no direct reference to other periods or artists. Nara's work does not assume any knowledge of the art world. It is not coded with didactic reference, nor is it infused with specific political or institutional messages. That is not to say that the above qualities are negative, but the distance his oeuvre maintains from political or subversive practices results in a separate world full of rebellious youth from Nara's imagination. Instead of fighting a specific power, enemy or cause, the youthfully defiant characters of his paintings, sculptures and drawings are defiant for its own sake. The integrity of their rebellious spirit is admirable and resonates with the youthful viewer as well as with those adults who remember the youthful alienation of their childhood.