Yoshitomo Nara at Hayward Gallery

Hayward Gallery presents the first major retrospective in the UK dedicated to leading Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. Spanning four decades, the exhibition invites audiences into the compelling world of one of today’s most celebrated contemporary artists, featuring recent paintings and drawings alongside sculptures and iconic portraits rendered in richly layered colours.

Yoshitomo Nara is best-known for his striking images of child-like figures and animals with large heads and wide eyes that challenge viewers with their direct gaze and defiant stance. Both captivating and ominous, these characters exemplify Nara’s distinctive style that is recognised across the world.

Nara’s work delves into themes such as resistance, rebellion, solitude, freedom, and spirituality. This thematic exhibition reveals the enduring influences on the artist’s work, particularly nature and its mythology, the pacifist movement, the importance of home, as well as his interest in punk music, rock, and popular culture.

As a key exhibition donor, the Bukhman Foundation is proud to support this landmark presentation at the Hayward Gallery.

The exhibition opens on 10th June and runs until 31st August 2025.

About Yoshitomo Nara
Born in 1959 in Hirosaki, Aomori prefecture, Japan, Nara graduated from Aichi Prefectural University of the Arts in 1987. He moved to Germany in 1988 and enrolled at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he studied under A. R. Penck. Nara moved to Cologne in 1994 and returned to Japan in 2000. Since the mid-1990s, Nara has exhibited throughout Japan and internationally, in museums and galleries in the UK, Europe, the United States, Korea, China and Australia.

About the Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery, part of the Southbank Centre, has a long history of presenting work by the world’s most adventurous and innovative artists including major solo shows by both emerging and established artists and dynamic group exhibitions. They include those by Bridget Riley, Bruce Nauman, Anish Kapoor, Lee Bul, Andreas Gurksy, Tracey Emin, Jeremy Deller, Kader Attia and Matthew Barney, as well as influential group exhibitions such as Africa Remix, Light Show, Psycho Buildings and Space Shifters. Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in July 1968, the gallery is one of the few remaining buildings of its style. The Brutalist building was designed by a group of young architects, including Dennis Crompton, Warren Chalk and Ron Herron and is named after Sir Isaac Hayward, a former leader of the London County Council.

Images

Yoshitomo Nara, Missing in Action, 1999. Courtesy of Sally and Ralph Tawil and Yoshitomo Nara Foundation. © Yoshitomo Nara.

Yoshitomo Nara, Sleepless Night (Sitting), 1997. © Yoshitomo Nara, courtesy Yoshitomo Nara Foundation.