Nara is internationally known for his cartoon-like paintings, drawings, and sculptures of children and animals that combine the influences of Japanese manga and Western comic strips with the directness of the Pop Art aesthetic. The results are works that are both playful and colorful as well as trenchant in their nod to the certain ennui and estrangement associated with contemporary life.
Here, in a prime example of the artist’s paintings on paper, the figure of a girl with a large head and wide eyes wears an orange dress and gestures to the viewer. Small rectangular cartouches of Japanese script frame her at left and right. Nara attended the acclaimed Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf from the late 1980s to the early 1990s where he developed his signature, pared down style.

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