Mr.

(Japanese, born 1969)

Mr. is a Japanese painter and installation artist associated with the “Superflat” movement pioneered by Takashi Murakami. Mr.’s work similarly employs the visual language of otaku, the Japanese subculture centered on adolescence, manga, anime, and video games, to examine high and low forms of contemporary expression. Born Masakatsu Iwamoto in 1969 in Cupa, Japan, he graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, Sokei Art School in Tokyo in 1996. His early work drew inspiration from the 1960s Italian Arte Povera movement as well as Japanese and English pop culture. Prior to 2010, Mr. often portrayed young girls as hypersexual, “lolicon” figures in his work, a convention commonly employed in anime. In the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and nuclear meltdown in Tohoku, Japan, the artist returned to the gritty, abstract painting style he first practiced, exploring themes of destruction. In his 2012 exhibition at Lehmann Maupin, and his 2015 show at the Seattle Art Museum, Mr. invited viewers to interact with his installation art comprised of soiled everyday objects, a psychological concept he brings to his paintings through trampling, tearing, and burning his canvases. Mr. has collaborated with the Supreme clothing brand and has exhibited with Rei Sato, Chiho Aoshuma, and Aya Takano. His work can be found in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Daegu Art Museum, South Korea, among others.