Yoshitomo Nara: Greeting from a Place in My Heart at Dairy Art Centre in Bloomsbury presents a great opportunity to get a good long look at art that’s as adorable as it is dastardly: like cooing over a cute cuddly kitten tearing apart a toy mouse or jotting down a nightmare on a pastel notepad.
Featuring a range of paintings, large and small sculptures, and a retrospective of drawings which spans 30 years, Greeting from a Place in My Heart is the largest and most comprehensive UK exhibition of work by the popular Japanese contemporary artist to date and includes seminal pieces by the artist, many of which have never been shown before in the UK.
It’s all fun stuff: a little cheeky, immediately likeable and wonderfully accessible … yet so finely executed and beguiling. Cute but meaningful – a match which I reckon difficult to pull off. At the very least, the show is a hoot. Delve deeper though and themes of anxiety, alienation, and hope provoke contemplation.
Greetings from a Place in My Heart runs from October 3 to 7 December at the Dairy Art Centre, 7A Wakefield Street, WC1N 1PG. Find out more at dairyartcentre.org.uk.
