"More than anything, what I’ve learned up to this point is that Earth at any given time is populated by a certain number of hypercreatives, people who are on the planet solely to think and drive and output ideas. Like Kanye or Karl Lagerfeld, who exist for that sole reason, Takashi can think and process in a way that is not work. They exist to create, and it’s effortless."
—Virgil Abloh
Globally celebrated creative forces Virgil Abloh and Takashi Murakami teamed up in 2018 for passion project future history, first exhibited that year at Gagosian Gallery in London. Murakami and Abloh are serial collaborators: Abloh–the late fashion designer famed for his contributions to iconic brands including Louis Vuitton and OFF WHITE™ streetwear–and Murakami–the artist notable for his signature ‘super flat’ psychedelic paintings and sculptures– first met while working on the iconic album cover for Kanye West’s 2007 Graduation.
Nearly a decade later, Abloh and Murakami combined their respective visual languages to create a suite of paintings and sculptures that highlight parallels in American street style and Japanese post-pop art. An excellent example from the future history project, Our Spot 1 emblazons the bold OFF WHITE™ arrows logo atop a sea of multi-colored skulls rendered in Murakami’s iconic caricature style. Our Spot 1 layers both visionaries’ trademark designs, underscoring the overlap of commercialism, contemporary culture, and high art.
"The ingredient that is the most unique to this collaboration is the wave of the era that Virgil is riding now. The audience looking at our collaborative works in a museum 100 years from now will nostalgically look back to this time; I think these works will allow them to think about the shifts and transitions through the history of art."
—Takashi Murakami