YNG
YNG | Yoshitomo Nara | Japan b.1959 | graf | Japan est. 1993 | Guitar Girl/Cheer Up! YOSHINO! (from Y.N.G.M.S. (Y.N.G.’s Mobile Studio)) 2009 | Synthetic polymer paint, colour pencil on paper mounted on board | 81 x 61cm | Purchased 2009 with funds from the Bequest of Grace Davies and Nell Davies through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Photograph: Kei Okano
Yoshitomo Nara
b.1959 Hirosaki, Japan
Lives and works in Toshigi, Japan
graf
est.1993 Osaka, Japan
Yoshitomo Nara, one of Japan’s best known contemporary artists, regularly collaborates, under the acronym YNG, with Osaka-based architectural firm graf to construct playful and whimsical interactive environments, extending Nara’s fascination with the experience of childhood. The spaces YNG create range from intimate nooks and hideaway huts to miniature villages, built in response to the environment, materials and architecture of the sites where the works are made. As with many of YNG’s works, the installation commissioned for APT6 will use reclaimed timbers and found materials to form the structure, while the interior spaces will be filled with Nara’s iconic drawings and objects. An encounter with YNG’s world inspires a sense of wonder and discovery and explores how we respond to our surroundings.
Yoshitomo Nara is internationally renowned for his ‘super-flat’ drawings, paintings and sculptures of mischievous children and animals. Strongly influenced by punk music, anime, manga and Marvel comics, Nara’s work is also inspired by his own childhood memories and experiences. His iconic, cartoon-like characters channel experiences of anxiety and fear, undercutting idealised notions of childhood innocence. While considered a cult figure in his native Japan, his works transcend national and cultural boundaries and are widely integrated into Western popular culture.
Graf is a creative design group established in Osaka in 1993 by Shigeki Hattori, Hiroto Aranishi, Kenji Tokyura, Hideki Toyoshima, Takashi Matsui and Yuji Nozawa. Their interdisciplinary studio practice ranges across architecture, interiors, fashion and furniture design, and investigates the crossovers between art and craft, and design and architecture. Their arts and cultural branch, graf media gm, run a gallery space, a music label and a publishing house. Collaboration is intrinsic to all facets of their work, and since 2003 they have been working with Yoshitomo Nara to create a range of site-specific installations in gallery settings.
Exhibitions (YNG, solo): BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom, 2008; Museum of Contemporary Art, Den Haag, the Netherlands, 2007; Contemporary Art Centre, Malaga, Spain, 2007; Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, United States, 2005. Exhibitions (YNG, group): ‘KITA!!: Japanese Artists Meet Indonesia’, Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2008; Yokohama Triennale, Japan, 2005.
Installation photography
APT6 | YNG (Yoshitomo Nara and graf) | Y.N.G.M.S. (Y.N.G.’s Mobile Studio) 2009
