Tomoko Nagao: artworks and biography of the artist

Tomoko Nagao is one of the main contemporary artists of Micropop art. Born in 1976 in Nagoya, Japan, where she studied the stylised forms of Nara Yoshitomo and the Superflat style of Takashi Murakami. Today she is considered the most important exponent of Micropop and Superflat in Italy, where she now lives.

Tomoko draws inspiration from the works of Caravaggio, Velázquez, Tiziano, La Tour, Botticelli, Hokusaiand revisits them by presenting global brands such as Coca-Cola, iPad, Barilla, Play Station PSP. The adaptation of the classic paintings of the great masters by Tomoko Nagao is meant to be ironic towards the economic mechanisms of art, as it aims to bring Renaissance patrons, such as the Medici, and the creative directors of big brands onto the same level.

In this way, his works become a metaphor for globalisation, making them more "easy to read" thanks to the Japanese aesthetic concept of "Kawaii" that makes everything "cool". His production includes original paintings, stencils and vectorial art. She practices the Superflat style, the Japanese postmodern art movement founded by Takashi Murakami, which characterises her artistic production.

Tomoko's innovative and original art

The works by Tomoko Nagao are full of flat, emphatic images with defined contours. Her art is innovative and original, combining at the same time classical and contemporary art, Eastern traditions and Western culture. He chooses classic subjects from the history of art that are world-famous and instantly recognisable and revisits them in a Pop key and with elements of Japanese Manga and Ukiyo-e culture. One of the best examples of this is the Mickey Mouse wearing Armani underwear.

In September 2015 his work Botticelli - The Birth of Venus with Baci was exhibited at the Gemalde Galeriein Berlin and, in 2016, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on the occasion of The Botticelli Renaissance group show, considered by critics to be one of the most interesting events of that year.