Let’s Talk About Nara

Get to know one of Japan’s most celebrated artists from many angles.

Schedule
2pm: Let’s Talk About Nara: Music
A musical lecture by Grammy nominated cultural historian Josh Kun, exploring the importance of popular music to Yoshitomo Nara’s work.

3.30pm: Let’s Talk About Nara: Image Making
Art critic Barry Schwabsky and curator Mika Yoshitake discuss the international context of Yoshitomo Nara’s work, as one of the most celebrated Japanese artists working today.

5.30pm: Let’s Talk About Nara: Art and Life
Yeewan Koon, an art historian and specialist in Yoshitomo Nara, joins Hayward Gallery Senior Curator Yung Ma to discuss Nara’s life and work and his Hayward Gallery exhibition.

Yeewan Koon is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art History at the University of Hong Kong. She is the author of the book Yoshitomo Nara (Phaidon, 2020), and curated My Imperfect Self: Yoshitomo Nara at Blum, Los Angeles in 2025.

Josh Kun is a Grammy Award-nominated cultural historian, author, curator and MacArthur Fellow. His books include Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America, The Tide Was Always High: The Music of Latin America in Los Angeles and Songs in the Key of Los Angeles. He is Vice Provost for the Arts and Professor and Endowed Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Barry Schwabsky is art critic for The Nation magazine and an editor at Artforum. His recent books include two collections of poetry, Water from Another Source (Spuyten Duyvil, 2023) and Feelings of And (Black Square Editions, 2022).

Mika Yoshitake is a curator specialising in postwar Japanese art. She has organised exhibitions including Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2024; Yayoi Kusama: 1945 – Now at M+, Hong Kong, 2022–23; Yoshitomo Nara at LACMA, Los Angeles, 2021; and KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature at New York Botanical Garden, 2021.