Yasumasa Morimura: Ego Obscura

The first NY institutional solo exhibition of one of Japan's most prolific and versatile contemporary artists, Yasumasa Morimura. Ego Obscura highlights Morimura's 30-year-long project of excavating "the self" from layers of art history, Japanese postwar history, and personal history. 

In addition to major photographic self-portraits, for which Morimura transformed himself into iconic artistic and pop culture figures, the exhibition will also feature the U.S. premiere of the artist's first full-length video work, Ego Symposion (2016) and his latest cinematic installation Nippon-cha-cha-cha (2018), in conjunction with a live performance staged by the artist on the opening weekend.

“Not only does his work offer a deeper understanding of Japanese identity within a Western context, it also inspires important dialogues between cultures in an age where self-reflection and identity are constantly examined,” Yukie Kamiya, the show’s curator and Japan Society director, said in a statement.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Image: Yasumasa Morimura, Une moderne Olympia, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York. © Yasumasa Morimura