Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

Join Rob Mintz, chief curator at the Asian Art Museum, and Laura Allen, the museum's Senior Curator of Japanese Art for an engaging conversation about Murakami's blockbuster exhibition Unfamiliar People: The Swelling of Monsterized Human Ego. The show, four years in the making, takes anime and manga to new heights. This is Takashi Murakami's first solo exhibition in San Francisco. The exhibit is not only a commentary on our society, it's a nuanced examination of human behavior within an extraordinary artistic framework. Laura Allen has known Murakami since the Fall of 2019, when she visited the artist in his Tokyo studio. Together with Rob Mintz, she'll provide insight into Murakami's personality, both as an artist as well as a social scientist. She'll also talk about her collaboration with Murakami; discuss the many pitfalls she encountered along the way as well as what finally convinced him to create this extraordinary exhibit and display it at the Asian Art Museum. About the Speaker Dr. Laura W. Allen is