Renowned Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, known for his signature smiling, rainbow-hued flowers, has launched a vibrant and thought-provoking exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art, opening to the public this Sunday.
Titled “Takashi Murakami: Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow,” the exhibition is an expanded version of a show previously held in Los Angeles and features over 100 works spanning various media — from paintings and sculptures to collaborations with luxury fashion brands like Louis Vuitton, album art, and even Major League Baseball merchandise.
Murakami, whose style often blends playful imagery with deeper socio-historical commentary, said he intentionally pairs cheerful visuals with references to collective trauma, reflecting on how events shape societies. “It might seem like my work is very light and accessible — and that’s intentional,” he told the Associated Press. “It’s one of my tricks.”
The exhibit explores themes of cultural memory and resilience. According to Ed Schad, curator at The Broad museum in Los Angeles, the artworks are steeped in historical context and serve as a reflection of societal health and response to trauma. “What society is reacting to most in this exhibition is the idea of trauma,” he noted.
Among the standout pieces is Pom and Me, a sculpture depicting Murakami and his dog, half of their bodies rendered in anatomical detail, revealing internal organs and bones. The piece symbolizes the artist’s Western experiences filtered through his Japanese identity.
Another installation features a wall of square portraits of cartoon-like flowers, their expressions ranging from joyful to sorrowful — some crying, others zombie-like or stunned as if watching fireworks. Organized by background color to form a rainbow, these images hint at emotional complexity beneath their playful surface.
While the works don’t explicitly depict historical events, the museum contextualizes them against three major moments in Japanese history: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and resulting Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Visitors to the lower-level gallery first pass through a structure modeled after the Yumedono (Hall of Dreams) from Horyuji Temple in Nara, Japan. Inspired by the 2024 TV series Shōgun, this octagonal pavilion houses four recent Murakami paintings: Blue Dragon Kyoto, Vermillion Bird Kyoto, White Tiger Kyoto, and Black Tortoise Kyoto — completed between 2023 and 2025.
The ticketed exhibition will remain on view through early September.