Exhibition of Yoshitaka Amano's multimedia paintings, including the massive work 'Big Bang', exploring his fusion of anime style and Western art movements.
Yoshitaka Amano is showing at the Asia Society Texas Center through February 7, 2027, in the Louisa Stude Sarofim Gallery. The exhibition is called Big Bang, and it brings together about 40 of his paintings in oil, ink, and automotive paint. It's curated by Owen Duffy and covers roughly 30 years of Amano's work, tracing how his anime style blends with Western movements from Art Nouveau to Pop Art.
Among the pieces on display is New York Nights II (1997), one of his first oil paintings and over 50 feet long. There's also the Mozart (1997) series, painted on gold-leaf panels, and Big Bang (2018), a massive work that grew out of his concept art for Final Fantasy XV. The show mixes these larger pieces with his smaller ink and automotive paint works, so you get a good sense of the different materials he works in.
Amano has been a major figure in Japanese visual culture for over five decades. He started his professional career at 15 at Tokyo's Tatsunoko Productions, where he helped create characters for early anime like Speed Racer and Gatchaman. In 1987, he became the principal concept artist for the Final Fantasy franchise, imagining many of its most enduring characters. After a stint in New York City in 1997, he developed a painting practice separate from his animation work, drawing on Japanese mythology, Art Nouveau, and fantasy to blur the line between fine art and popular culture.
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Admission is $8, and it's free for kids 6 and under, students with ID, and Asia Society Texas members. Thursdays are free for everyone, thanks to Akemi and Yasuhiko Saitoh. The gallery is open Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM, and Thursday from 12 PM to 7 PM. If you're looking for a guided tour, they're held on Saturdays from 11 AM to 12 PM on October 10, November 21, December 19, and January 16. The Asia Society Texas Center is at 1370 Southmore Blvd in the Museum District.
