Too Young to Die Ashtray, Yoshitomo Nara 2002

Ultra cool polychrome glazed ceramic ashtray. Some minimal glaze chips. Lauded by art critics, Nara's bizarrely intriguing works have gained him a cult following around the world. This is a limited edition work, published by Bozart in 2002 - they were a very special group of artists who produced toys in the 1990s-early aughts. Highly collectible, and very chic. It is nice and wide and holds a table like a painting holds a wall. First edition.

ARTIST: Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959, Japan): Nara graduated from Aichi University of the Arts with a master’s degree in 1987 before settling in Cologne in 1994. This period of time was a pivotal influence on Nara, during which he began synthesizing Japanese and Western popular culture and when he found his style. Nara’s paintings enact a fleeting presence between the figure and the ground—a result of several layers of paint in subtly varied if subdued pigments that he applies throughout the painting process—in which the figure pops out of or floats in a space that appears to exist outside the constraints of time. Nara’s work spans painting, drawing, photography, large-scale installations, and sculpture in ceramic, bronze, and fiber-reinforced plastic. Influenced by popular music, memories of childhood, and current events, he filters these references through an exploratory realm of feelings, loneliness, and rebelliousness especially, which span autobiographical as well as broader cultural sensibilities.