Virgil Abloh and Takashi Murakami Open Exhibition In London

They’ve been posting teasers on social media for weeks now, but the highly anticipated exhibition from Off-White’s Virgil Abloh and artist Takashi Murakami has opened in London today. Future History will be on show at the Gagosian gallery’s Davies Street space until April 7, 2018, and displays collaborative works by the duo.

The exhibition officially opened with a reception last night and to celebrate the launch the duo released 400 limited-edition T-shirts this morning. Featuring a graphic inspired by the exhibition that merges the Off-White logo with Murakami’s Mr. DOB character, the T-shirts are numbered and can only be purchased in advance on Gagosian’s website.

Visitors to the gallery will be able to view works that Abloh and Murakami created in the artist’s Tokyo studio. Spanning sculptures and paintings, the works combine the signature styles and trademarks of both creatives. Abloh’s background in fashion, architecture and engineering is complemented with Murakami’s inspirations of traditional Japanese painting, otaku subculture and Western art theory.

Key works on display at Future History are Kyoto Ensō, which features yellow Off-White tape given the graffiti treatment with acrylic paint, Our Spot 1, and Life itself, a structure designed by Abloh that houses a flower sculpture by Murakami. Another piece of note is Glance past the future, a reproduction of artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s self-portrait from 1623 that’s been superimposed with Murakami’s Mr. DOB character and blurred graphics to give off the feel of a disused street poster.

Speaking about the exhibition in a press release, Murakami said, “We want to see the newest things. That is because we want to see the future, even if only momentarily. It is the moment in which, even if we don’t completely understand what we have glimpsed, we are nonetheless touched by it. This is what we have come to call art.” Abloh added, “We are driven by an innate ambition to make artworks that are shaped by societal observations – in a variety of media – which by their existence produce a new cultural impact.”

Future History is open to the public from February 21 – April 7, 2018, at Gagosian Gallery, 17-19 Davies Street, London, W1K 3DE.