Takashi Murakami (b. 1962, Tokyo, Japan) lives and works in Tokyo and New York. He studied at Tokyo University of the Arts, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1986, his master’s degree in 1988, and his PhD. in 1993. He founded the Hiropon factory in Tokyo in 1996, which later evolved into Kaikai Kiki, an art production and art management corporation. In addition to the production and marketing of Murakami's art and related work, Kaikai Kiki functions as a supportive environment for the fostering of emerging artists. Recent major museum exhibitions include: Murakami: The 500 Arhats, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2015); Arhat Cycle, Palazzo Reale, Milan (2014); Murakami: Ego, Qatar Museums Authority, Doha (2012); Takashi Murakami Versailles, Palace of Versailles, Versailles (2010); © MURAKAMI, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2007; traveled to Brooklyn Museum, New York; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; and Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao through 2009); Kaikai Kiki: Takashi Murakami, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris (2002; traveled to Serpentine Gallery, London); Takashi Murakami: Made in Japan, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2001); and Summon Monsters? Open the Door? Heal? Or Die?, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2001).
Katya Inozemtseva is a Senior Curator at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University in 2004 and subsequently obtained her Candidate’s Degree in Philology there in 2007. From 2003 to 2004, she worked in the Department of Experimental Programs at the National Center for Contemporary Arts. From 2004 to 2005, she was a curator at Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Moscow, and from 2006 to 2011, she was deputy art director at Proun Gallery, Moscow. From 2011 to 2014 she was chief curator and deputy director of Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, where she curated over fifty projects. She has written extensively on Russian contemporary art and the Russian avant-garde. Inozemtseva has worked at Garage since 2014. Her exhibition projects at Garage include Viktor Pivovarov. The Snail’s Trail (2016), Taryn Simon. Action Research / The Stagecraft of Power (2016), Rirkrit Tiravanija. Tomorrow is the Question (2015).
