My Little Treasure, 2010

Printed by master printer Yasu Shibata at the Pace Editions Workshop, this ukiyo-e woodcut effortlessly presents Nara’s signature imagery through a labor-intensive printmaking process familiar to Nara and Japanese heritage. Rendered with attitude, somewhere between melancholy and punk, Yoshitomo Nara’s famous ‘femme fatale’ draw us in, the formally uncomplicated character of My Little Treasure engaging the viewer with her playful stance, staring out with wide eyes as she delicately grasps her glowing, titular ‘treasure’ between two figures. Referencing his nimble drawings, often done on brown paper or cardboard, this woodcut embodies the same immediacy, but more refined, elevating his practice while imbuing the image with the same lively energy.

Through My Little Treasure, Nara evokes forgotten memories or feelings of childhood, sparked anew by the childlike features and expressions of his figure, further creating his own unique style by centralizing the figure of a child as his subject; largely surrounded by empty space indicative of a void, Nara allows for child-like associations. “Nara will always find his own voice, as he once found it in the strange but deeply familiar figure of the solitary child dwelling in the apparent void of his unconscious. Somewhere in his inexhaustible imaginary realm, the image of a simple song awaits his return, and its return to the world with him.” – Midori Matsui, “A Child in the White Field: Yoshitomo Nara as a Great ‘Minor’ Artist” in Yoshitomo Nara: The Complete Works, Paintings, Sculptures, Editions