Accompanied by a limited-edition trading card and immersive augmented-reality experiences, this substantial volume focuses on new work by Takashi Murakami. Bridging the physical and digital realms, these paintings and sculptures are inspired by sources ranging from ancient Chinese ceramics to digital avatars and NFTs.

Documenting Takashi Murakami’s expansive exhibition of the same title at Gagosian, New York, An Arrow through History brings together three new bodies of work by the renowned Japanese artist that bridge the digital and physical realms: paintings and sculptures of digital avatars based on the Clone X NFTs developed in collaboration with RTFKT Studios; paintings of pixelated flowers related to the Murakami.Flowers NFT project, which combining Murakami’s influential Superflat aesthetic with a style evoking nostalgia for the 1980s video game graphics; and shaped canvases featuring fish motifs inspired by the imagery on ancient Chinese ceramics. These new artworks are represented in full-color plate images, installation photography, and behind-the-scenes studio shots. Readers can also activate four custom Snapchat lenses accessed via QR codes in the book to view augmented-reality animations that bring Murakami’s iconic imagery to life.

An essay by author and researcher Amy Whitaker traces a thread “from the white cube to the black square,” contextualizing Murakami’s project within art history and the field of Internet art. A conversation between conceptual footwear designer Daniel Bailey; Elizabeth Semmelhack, director and senior curator of Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum; and Gagosian director of strategic initiatives Ashley Overbeek examines the urge to collect through the lenses of sneaker culture and NFTs. Takashi Murakami and RTFKT studios discuss their ongoing collaboration, the necessity of “cognitive revolution,” and the future of art in a conversation moderated by Gagosian Quarterly’s Wyatt Allgeier.

About The Author

Wyatt Allgeier is a writer and an editor for Gagosian Quarterly. He lives and works in New York City.

Daniel Bailey (aka Mr. Bailey) is a conceptual footwear designer and the founder of the sneaker design and community platform CONCEPTKICKS. For ComplexCon’s Sneakers for Breakfast, he partnered with Takashi Murakami to create a set of sneakers inspired by Takashi’s artwork.

Takashi Murakami earned a PhD from the Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Fine Arts. He began exhibiting his work while still at the university and in 1996 established the Hiropon Factory studio (today Kaikai Kiki) to produce it. In addition to making and marketing Murakami’s art and related work, Kaikai Kiki functions as a supportive environment for fostering emerging artists. With the curation of the 2000 Superflat exhibition, Murakami advanced the Superflat theory of Japanese art. He has exhibited widely both in Japan and overseas. 

Ashley Overbeek is director of strategic initiatives at Gagosian, where she worked with Takashi Murakami on his An Arrow through History show. She has been collecting NFTs since early 2019 and cohosts a recurring live audio conversation in which she interviews leading crypto artists.

RTFKT Studios is a creator-led organization that uses the latest in game engines, NFTs, blockchain authentication, and augmented reality, combined with manufacturing expertise, to create one-of-a-kind sneakers and digital artifacts.

Elizabeth Semmelhack is the director and senior curator of the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto. She has curated more than thirty exhibitions, including Future Now, which featured RTFKT’s digital sneakers. She is also the author of several books related to footwear highlighting Takashi Murakami’s collaborations in the sneaker space.

Amy Whitaker is an associate professor at New York University and longtime researcher in the intersections of art, economics, and politics. She is the author of three books, Museum Legs (Hol Art Books, 2009), Art Thinking (Harper Business, 2016), and Economics of Visual Art (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and coauthor, with Nora Burnett Abrams, of The Story of NFTs: Artists, Technology, and Democracy (Rizzoli and MCA Denver, 2023).