Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959)

“Nara works alone in his studio, usually late at night, with punk rock screaming from speakers. He chain-smokes as he concentrates on channeling all of his past ghosts and present emotions into the deceptively simple face of his current subject. Each painting- each figure- is typically executed in the span of one night, capturing both a range of emotion and a specific mood.”
– (K. Chambers, Nothing Ever Happens, Cleveland, 2003, p. 26)