Press Release (.pdf: 27k)
Participating Artists
Sponsorship
Location

An exhibition organized by Japan Society in collaboration with Public Art Fund,
featuring four outdoor and off-site public art projects.

Public Art Fund presents a series of four public art projects as part of Little Boy, a major exhibition hosted by Japan Society Gallery. The exhibition and public installations, all curated by Takashi Murakami, explore the astoundingly popular phenomenon called otaku, a Japanese youth subculture obsessed with fantastic and apocalyptic science fiction, fantasy, video games, comic books (manga) and film animation (anime), whose visual and musical forms are rapidly becoming globalized. The exhibition features works by leading creators of these popular art forms as well as related paintings, sculpture and photography by acclaimed contemporary Japanese Neo-Pop artists such as Yoshitomo Nara and Chiho Aoshima. A fully illustrated, bilingual catalogue, co-published with Yale University Press, accompanies the exhibition.

	Chiho Aoshima – City Glow and Paradise Chiho Aoshima’s large-scale digital murals portray otherworldly landscapes richly detailed with candy-colored flora and fauna. Aoshima created two separate series for Little Boy, both of which are on view in the Union Square subway station throughout May 2005. More about this project
	Chinatsu Ban – V W X Yellow Elephant Underwear/H I J Kiddy Elephant Chinatsu Ban’s first foray into sculpture formally resembles her many colorful elephant drawings. With wide eyes, large bodies with small appendages, and no mouth, Ban’s pair of elephants are irresistibly cartoon-cute. But, for the artist, they are also charged with intense meaning and personal symbolism. More about this project
	Subway placards Four artists whose artwork is on view inside the Japan Society’s galleries--Chiho Aoshima, Aya Takano, Hideaki Kawashima, and Noboru Tsubaki--are featured on MTA subway placards. These placards are on display inside the doorways of subway cars throughout the system’s network starting April 4, 2005. More about this project

Sponsorship
Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture is sponsored by Microsoft.

Major support for this exhibition is provided by The W.L.S. Spencer Foundation and Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. and Kaikai Kiki New York, LLC.

Additional support is provided by the E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, The Rosenkranz Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Asian Cultural Council, The Blakemore Foundation, the Japan Foundation, and the Leadership Committee for Little Boy.

Artist support for this exhibition has been generously provided by Yoko Ono.
Transportation support is provided by Japan Airlines.

Location
The Japan Society Gallery is located at 333 East 47th Street (at First Avenue). Hours are Tuesday-Thursday 11am-6pm, Friday 11am-9pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am-5pm. Kids under 16 do not pay admission. www.japansociety.org

Doris C. Freedman Plaza is located at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street. Nearest subway: N, R to Fifth Avenue or 4, 5, 6 to 59th Street.

Union Square subway station is accessible by the N, R, W, Q, 4, 5, 6, and L trains.

Subway placards appear throughout the system’s network April 4 – May 1, 2005