Lehmann Maupin is pleased to present Sunset in My Heart, a solo exhibition of new work by Mr. (b. 1969, Cupa, Japan) who works in a variety of media including painting, drawing, video, performance, sculpture, and installation. Mr.’s most recent body of work exemplifies a maturation and growth within his practice. While his aesthetic remains committed to the Superflat (1) style for which he is best known, the works featured in Sunset in My Heart highlight the influence that the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear disaster have had on Mr.’s work in the years since. There will be an opening reception designed to recreate a Japanese summer festival with a performance by Mr. at the gallery (536 West 22nd Street.

For Sunset in My Heart, Mr. has returned to his expressive and experimental roots as a young artist, incorporating abstract elements like graffiti, and using distressed and sullied canvases. Mr. prepares the canvases by burning them, walking over them, and leaving them on his studio floor to collect dirt and debris. This new treatment of the canvas is directly connected to the artist’s early interest in the 1960s Italian art movement Arte Povera that inspired his first manga paintings he produced on store receipts, takeout menus, and other scraps of transactional detritus. Mr. uses the distressed surface of the canvas as a base for cartoon renderings inspired by the online milieu of his otaku (2) community, or sourced from the artist's collection of magazines, posters, and advertising. These recent works reflect the artist’s intensely personal reinterpretation of popular visual culture and the increasingly mediated ways we engage with one another.