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The Foodstuffs Wait Outside
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Object number2024.15

The Foodstuffs Wait Outside

Artist (Japanese, 1979)
Date2007
Mediumacrylic on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 36 × 46 × 1 in. (91.4 × 116.8 × 2.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Tilton Family Collection
Exhibition HistoryMahomi Kunikata, Jack Tilton Gallery, NY Nov 20 - Dec 22, 2007Label TextKunikata’s work places her among a growing group of artists employing anime-influenced styles and subject matter to celebrate and satirize contemporary Japanese popular culture. She is often associated with her mentor Takashi Murakami and his “superflat” style, which draws on historical Japanese art and contemporary popular media and emphasizes the historical two-dimensionality of Japanese media and the recent flattening of historical divides between between high and low culture. Kunikata’s paintings shed light on otaku, the Japanese term for the obsessive focus on popular media including manga, anime, and video games, which is increasingly prevalent among young people. As a result, Kunikata demonstrates both an appreciation for these media and an awareness of some of the problems of fandom today. Behind the veneer of perfection, outrageousness, and sensuality in her paintings, there is a tragic emptiness that reflects society’s mounting disconnection with reality and the artist’s struggle to reckon with her own psychological and family troubles. The Foodstuffs Wait Outside focuses on issues ranging from the proliferation of stylized sexualization in contemporary Japanese popular culture to encroachment of industrial facilities on the natural environment to the proliferation of public advertisements. Such commentary casts light on the dark side of the “comic” as both a sensibility and a cultural medium, and reflects a new trend toward satire and social critique in Japanese contemporary art.

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