Born in Tokyo in 1962, Takashi Murakami is one of the most influential artists to come out of Japan in recent decades. Formally trained in Nihonga (a painting style focused on traditional Japanese techniques and subject matter), Murakami earned a Ph.D. from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1993, and emerged out of Japan's Neo-Pop generation after the collapse of Japan's bubble economy in the late 1980s. His artworks have been received at galleries, museums and auctions in major cities around the globe from Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles to London.