Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
FRIEZE 2025 Takashi Murakami returns to Seoul with smiling flowers, 'Superflat' philosophy
Japanese artist Takashi Murakami speaks during a press preview of his exhibit "Seoul, Kawaii Summer Vacation" with Gagosian at APMA Cabinet in central Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Wearing a hat in the shape of his signature smiling flower and a large Panda pendant around his neck, Takashi Murakami greeted Seoul with a grin as playful and vivid as his art. For the Japanese pop art icon, who has shaped the art world with his “Superflat” aesthetic, the outfit itself becomes another extension of his art.
Twelve years after his last solo exhibition in Seoul, Murakami returns with “Seoul, Kawaii Summer Vacation,” a compact but impactful showcase of new works presented by Gagosian at APMA Cabinet, a project space inside the Amorepacific headquarters in central Seoul's Yongsan District.
This is Murakami’s first Seoul solo since “Takashi in Superflat Wonderland” at Samsung Museum of Art Plateau in 2013 and follows his major 2023 retrospective “MurakamiZombie” at the Busan Museum of Art. This also is global mega gallery Gagosian’s third exhibition in Korea despite not having a permanent space in the country.
Visitors take a look at Takashi Murakami's “Summer Vacation Flowers under the Golden Sky” (2025) at his solo show at APMA Cabinet in central Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
Cute, flat and complicated
The artist’s iconic smiling flowers are instantly recognizable from his merchandise and collaborations with K-pop musicians such as BLACKPINK and NewJeans. At this exhibition, the flowers — rendered in painting, sculpture and against gold-leaf background — not only radiate joy, but also hint at deeper contradictions such as hope and anxiety, cuteness and critique, mass production and craftsmanship.
Murakami’s aesthetic is rooted in “nihonga,” a traditional Japanese painting style, which he tackled extensively through his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral studies. But by the mid-1990s, he began infusing it with anime, manga, otaku subcultures and the childlike “kawaii” (cute in Japanese) aesthetic to develop what he calls “Superflat,” a theory and technique that levels the hierarchy between high and low, traditional and modern, East and West, authentic and imitative, on a flat plane.
“I created [the concept of] Superflat over 20 years ago,” Murakami said during a press preview Monday. “When I first proposed it, the way Eastern and Western cultures expressed ideas visually felt very different. But now, through platforms like social media, everyone communicates in this flattened, shared visual space. I feel I predicted that. And even with new energies emerging — such as Trump’s rise or new polarizing policies — AI (artificial intelligence) is now making knowledge equally accessible. So this Superflat society is still relevant.”
The Seoul show centers on Murakami’s signature flower motif, both because of the venue’s limited space and as a deliberate curatorial focus.
“As his first solo show in Seoul in more than a decade, we wanted something essential, something that could represent his vast universe in a compact way. The flower motif, which has threaded through his entire career as both an accessible and significant symbol, was the perfect choice,” Lee Ji-young, Gagosian’s Seoul director, said.
A visitor takes a photo of Takashi Murakami's 2024 "Hello Flowerian" sculpture at his solo show at APMA Cabinet in central Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
Beyond the bloom
Among the standout works at this exhibit is “Summer Vacation Flowers under the Golden Sky” (2025), a panoramic painting where his candy-colored blooms stretch across a gold-leaf surface subtly embossed with skulls, a recurring Murakami symbol of “memento mori.”
“Tachiaoi-zu” (2025), meanwhile, reaches deeper into the past. The work pays homage to Edo-period artist Ogata Korin as Murakami interprets the “kiku-zu” (chrysanthemum screen) format in his own way — red, pink and white hollyhocks bloom across shimmering gold leaf, beneath which his signature skull patterns emerge like hidden subtext.
“There’s a recent TV series called ‘Shogun,’ based on a novel that portrays Japan from a foreigner’s perspective. With ‘Tachiaoi-zu,’ I felt it was time to express that era from my own point of view,” Murakami said.
The exhibition title itself reflects a dialogue between place and memory. The inclusion of “Seoul” was intentional. “We discussed every detail with the Gagosian Seoul team. They gave feedback on what Korean audiences might connect well with and we made selections based on those preferences,” Murakami said.
The “Summer Vacation” reference, on the other hand, is rooted more in Japanese culture — and in personal sentiment.
“In Japan, summer vacation holds a special place,” he said. “If you watch Hayao Miyazaki’s films, the story often begins when vacation starts and ends when it ends. That concept stayed with me and now it feels special to me too.”
A visitor takes a photo of Takashi Murakami's “Tachiaoi-zu” (2025), the artist's reinterpretation of Edo-period artist Ogata Korin's flower screens, at "Seoul, Kawaii Summer Vacation" exhibition at APMA Cabinet in central Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
Murakami’s global importance lies in his ability to draw on both historical and contemporary forms while navigating the shifting tides of the international art world. Beneath the playful visuals of his works lies a more complex vision, one that reflects the economic, social and psychic uncertainties of postwar Japan. By weaving together history, cultural memory and personal reflection, he creates art that resonates far beyond its surface appeal.
Gagosian's Asia Managing Director Nick Simunovic describes Murakami as “one of the greatest artists of our time.”
"Takashi occupies this incredibly unique position as an artist who is not only changing the course and direction of contemporary art in the future, also looking back and making us aware of the past," he said. "I don't think of Takashi as an Asian artist or Western artist. Takashi is an artist whose work is incredibly relevant everywhere in the world today.”
The exhibit runs through Oct. 11. Admission is free.