"If my art looks positive and cheerful, I would doubt my art was accepted in the contemporary art scene. My art is not Pop art. It is a record of the struggle of the discriminated people."

         - Takashi Murakami.

TAKASHI MURAKAMI: FLOWERS, NIRVANA and KAKAI KIKI, an exhibition comprised of eleven limited edition prints, numbered and signed by the leading Japanese contemporary artist, will be on view at NH Galeria in Cartagena from July 20th through August 21st.

Characterized by their ambiguous and sarcastic composition, Murakami's prints are influenced by traditional Japanese art, as well as anime and manga - contemporary forms of Japanese animation and comics - and American pop art.

With his signature "Superflat" style distinguished by flat planes of color and graphic images, Murakami blurs the lines between high and low culture. His scenes, composed of winking bright colored flowers and his iconic ficticious characters, Mr. Dob, Mr. Pointy and Kaikai Kiki, reflect upon the emptiness and lack of emotion in contemporary Japanese society. The frivolity of the otaku obsessed culture and lifestyle, Japanese consumerism, and sexual fetishism are some of the recurring themes in his work.

Born in 1962 in Tokyo, Murakami attended the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he received a doctorate of Nihonga (traditional Japanese art). In 1996, he founded the Hirogan factory which later evolved into KaikaiKiki Co., and art Production Company that operates in many fields. Murakami's work covers a broad range of art forms, including painting, sculpture, industrial design, anime, fashion and other media and merchandise in popular culture. His work has been shown extensively in group exhibitions around the world, and in one-person exhibitions at leading institutions including The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, La Fondation Cartier Pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris, the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, the Brooklyn Museum, New York, and most recently at the Château de Versalles, Île-de-France.

DATES: July 20 - August 21, 2011

LOCATION: Centro, Playa de la Artillería, Esquina Callejón de los Estribos,CARTAGENA DE INDIAS, COLOMBIA

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Ana Maria de la Ossa at 212-888-3550 or nhgaleria@gmail.com