Japanese Artist Busted For Subway Station Graffiti

Nara's exhibit at the Marianne Boesky Gallery

An inebriated 49-year-old artist was recently busted for drawing a smiley face at an L train stop. Well that certainly isn't the way you want to go down the night before your big gallery opening! The NY Post reports that the Japanese pop artist Yoshitomo Nara was caught red handed at 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 27th, putting Sharpie to brick (which has since been cleaned, but some say would have been worth around $10K).

Nara was charged with resisting arrest, making graffiti, criminal mischief, possession of graffiti tools and damaging property—but those charges will be dropped if he does not get in legal trouble for a year. The other bright side: He told Art in America that he looks at his time behind bars as "a nice experience in my life," encountering people he wouldn't have otherwise, "Like in the movies."

Nara's lawyer, who said his client had been working all day on the gallery exhibit and had some drinks, also expressed the artist's remorse, "The guy was in the subway. He had a few drinks and drew a little smiley face. He was wrong. He took his lumps. He spent a night in jail. He has respect for the police and the legal system.... This guy is a positive, upbeat guy. He felt that it was an experience he should learn from." Nara's exhibit is on view at Boesky through March 28th, and his show at the Asia Society will open in September 2010.

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By Jen Carlson in News on March 11, 2009 11:34 AM

Comments [rss]

luckmagnet

Graffiti was born from disgruntled teenagers, its sad enough that men and women in their 20's and 30's are trying to act like teens from the 70's but a 49 year old Asian dude... please

tingo

Would've been a heck of a story if it were a sad, frowning face.

MrCow

how the tell did he caught? sounds like an easy tag.

MrCow

*hell

Spirit of 76

This once again shows the difference between the Japanese and Americans. American vandals like Poster Boy proclaim their innocence when they're caught. This guy admits he did it and he's sorry. It's sort of like how the Yakuza still have honor even though they're criminals while the Gambinos are too busy rolling over on each other.

Thelonius Funk

I don't think you should use the experience of only one person to represent an entire nationality/population.

ides_of_march

And the Japanese guy didn't cry "racial profiling" either.

bucephalus

"The guy was in the subway. He had a few drinks and drew a little smiley face. He was wrong."

I see the bar for "remorse" has been lowered quite a bit.

r1b2

Thank goodness he didn't try to use the emergency exits!

Does this give him street cred, like 50 Cent, and thereby push prices for his work into the stratosphere?

mocanlagunas

I don't think he needs street cred. Nara has a long history doing art, not like the so-called "hip" graffiti "artists"...

The MTA should commission him to do a piece for a subway station. Or better yet, he should do it out of his own pocket. That would be awesome.