“Nobody’s Fool” offers a look into childhood memories and loneliness (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Asia Society
725 Park Ave. at 70th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through January 2
Admission: $5-$10 (free Friday nights from 6:00 to 9:00)
212-288-6400
www.asiasociety.org

The many obsessions of fifty-one-year-old Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara are on view at the Asia Society in “Nobody’s Fool,” a wide-ranging exhibition of paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, and site-specific installations. Divided into three primary themes — Isolation, Rebellion, and Music — the works create a fascinating portrait of Nara and his unique take on popular culture. Nara’s most familiar subjects — houses, animals, rock and roll, and little girls who are not quite as cute as they initially appear — relate to his own loneliness growing up and his desire to break free. Evil and danger lurk just below the surface of his pieces, if not in plain sight. In the painting “Make the Road, Follow the Road,” a pig-tailed girl hands a knife to a smiling doglike creature, while on the plate “Too Young to Die” a young girl smoking a cigarette directs a sly, knowing look at the viewer. And in the drawing “Stuffed Dog,” a canine wearing a crown has been thumbtacked to the wall, echoing the crucifixion by way of a direct reference to Nara’s own art, as if his freedom has been taken away from him, accompanied by the words “No Pain No Again.” Nara often uses written language in his works, with his characters making such declarations as “Oh! My God! I Miss You!” and “Pave Your Dreams.” Heavily influenced by American rock and punk, especially the Ramones, he incorporates such phrases as “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” and “Stand by me” in his pieces; In “Guitar Wolf,” the title animal is blasting away on a six-string, shouting out, “Fuckin’ neurotic world!” while in an untitled piece, a young girl with a guitar is standing atop a mountain with a face while singing, “Kill kill kill the P.” Nara has also set up a wall display of dozens of his favorite album covers, appreciated for their jacket art and/or music, including some very interesting and surprising choices.

Yoshitomo Nara opens up the doors to his psyche in site-specific installations at Asia Society (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Nobody’s Fool” also features three site-specific installations organized around the theme of home and developed by Nara in tandem with designer Hideki Toyoshima. “Drawing Room Between the Concord and Merrimack” creates a carnivalesque atmosphere with color-wheel stages you can stand on and a small house that represents Nara’s studio. “Doors,” named after the rock band and part of a bigger project from 2006 held in Nara’s hometown, consists of five rooms, each with a very different scene inside and including such works as “It’s Something Unpredictable But in the End Is Right” and “Promise Me No Dead End Streets,” inspired by Green Day. And in “Untitled (formerly ‘Home’),” Nara invites visitors to walk through a one-story house he and Toyoshima constructed earlier this year in the Park Ave. Armory and filled with a video montage of photographs, a peace sign stuffed with handmade dolls, and a maquette of “White Ghost,” a miniature of the large sculptures that stood on Park Ave. announcing and protecting the exhibit. The installations offer trips deeper into Nara’s fascinating psyche and working method, built on childhood memories and rock and roll dreams. On Sunday, December 19, Asia Society will be hosting “My House Is My Home,” a workshop for families at 3:00 in which they’ll take a closer look at Nara’s special installations. And as a special bonus, if you check in with Asia Society on Foursquare, you’ll get two-for-one admission. (Admission is free on Friday nights from 6:00 to 9:00.)