Takashi Murakami is a Japanese multimedia artist born in 1962. He creates paintings sculptures, films, and objects that derive inspiration from ranging influences including traditional Japanese painting, anime, sci-fi, and contemporary pop culture. He earned his PhD from Tokyo University of the Arts, where he studied nihonga, traditional Japanese painting. He describes his work as “Superflat,” a term he uses to embody the aesthetics of Japanese artistic tradition as well as the essence of Japanese post-war culture and society.