Category: Artist
Nationality: Japanese
Last Year: 28
Along with running his production company, Kaikai Kiki, and his biannual art fair, GEISAI, the only artist to be a candidate on Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People shortlist found a bit of time to churn out a few exhibitions in 2009. After a solo at London’s Gagosian, and another at Larry’s Chelsea digs in New York, Murakami geared up for yet one more at Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris (rumour had it that the whole show was sold out before it was even uncrated). It wasn’t the best auction year for the Japanese impresario – never mind his $2.6 million diamond-encrusted coup with Pharrell Williams at Art Basel this summer – but Murakami seems here to stay. Not least because, via his studio system and art fair, his influence is not limited to his artworks.