Lehmann Maupin presents Beyond the Alley, There…, a solo exhibition of new work by artist Mr. (b. 1969, Cupa, lives and works in Saitama, Japan). This exhibition marks the artist’s sixth solo presentation with Lehmann Maupin, and precedes a highly anticipated forthcoming solo exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum, AZ, opening November 2022.

Reflecting his long-standing commitment to critically examining how both images and desire circulate in global internet culture, Beyond the Alley, There… features new, large-scale paintings, shaped head and body paintings, and works on paper. Central to Mr.’s practice is otaku, an increasingly prevalent and popular Japanese subculture of fandom oriented around reclusion and retreat into immersive fantasy worlds, particularly manga and anime. Interested in bridging popular visual and high-art cultures, the artist has compared himself to a translator, positioning anime, manga, and other hallmarks of otaku in the realm of fine art for a global audience. Far from a dispassionate observer, Mr. is himself immersed in otaku culture, and has noted that his works are at times reflections of his personal interests in fantasy and imaginative world-building. As he reinterprets otaku aesthetics for an international art world, Mr. is simultaneously outsider and insider, reporter and diarist.