Yoshitomo Nara's images of solitary, wide-eyed figures inspired by Japanese and American popular culture have achieved a cult-like status. Actively opposing atomic bombs and nuclear energy, Nara's images have been used in antinuclear protests. While many of Nara's youthful characters may not be perceived as conveying overtly political statements, they are nevertheless informed by political and ecological consciousness of their maker. 

For the exhibition Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice, Yoshitomo Nara created two new paintings specifically for the exhibition A Sinking Island Floating in a Sea Called Space-1 and A Sinking Island Floating in a Sea Called Space-2. Each one represents a variation on a "body-as-island" motif, which the artist has been exploring in recent years. They are based on quarantine-era drawings in which diminutive hooded figures, each appearing atop the same pair of floating heads, peer out into emptiness, prophesying a future in which nearby landmasses have vanished under the rising ocean.

Measurement Approx: 

2" inches