Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1322158
PORTRAIT BY RYOICHI KAWAJIRI. YEAR OF YOSHITOMO T his month, global talent Yoshitomo Nara — a leading star (along with Takashi Murakami) of the Superflat movement, travels to Texas to install a monumental museum show at the Dallas Contemporary. Concurrently, Los Angeles County Museum of Art mounts an international touring retrospective, and Phaidon publishes the artist's monograph that weighs in at 330 pages/380 images. We caught up with man who's been tracking Nara's trajectory across multiple continents for more than two decades: Dallas Contemporary adjunct curator Pedro Alonzo, who's organizing Nara's first museum solo in Texas. Catherine D. Anspon discusses with Alonzo, his take on why Nara's work is often misunderstood, and why his drawings, sculpture, and paintings are ultimately more than manga and beyond neo-Pop. Yoshitomo Nara's NO WAR, 2019, at Dallas Contemporary (Continued on page 38) ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, BLUM & POE, AND PACE GALLERY 36