I live in New York and rarely go to see museums - it makes absolutely no sense. It’s like growing up in a brothel and never getting laid. At some point, you have to question the wisdom of it all. Well, I saw the Waterfalls last week and also made it to see the Murakami Exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. It is one of the more enjoyable exhibits I have ever seen in my life. Period. It closes on July 13th, 2008 so if you’re in the City or nearby, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Here’s the official blurb on the show - “The most comprehensive retrospective to date of the work of internationally acclaimed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami includes more than ninety works in various media that span the artist’s entire career, installed in more than 18,500 square feet of gallery space.

Born in Tokyo in 1962, Murakami is one of the most influential and acclaimed artists to have emerged from Asia in the late twentieth century, creating a wide-ranging body of work that consciously bridges fine art, design, animation, fashion, and popular culture. He received a Ph.D. from the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he was trained in the school of traditional Japanese painting known as Nihonga, a nineteenth-century mixture of Western and Eastern styles. However, the prevailing popularity of anime (animation) and manga (comic books) directed his interest toward the art of animation because, as he has said, “it was more representative of modern day Japanese life.” American popular culture in the form of animation, comics, and fashion are among the influences on his work, which includes painting, sculpture, installation, and animation, as well as a wide range of collectibles, multiples, and commercial products.”

But on to the eye candy…