Untitled

Nobuaki Kojima is a contemporary Japanese artist from Ōno, Fukui. His work is often understood through a dialogue with American pop art, although Kojima has rejected the identification with pop art. He is perhaps most recognized for his “Standing Figure” works, nearly life-sized sculptures of businessmen with red-and-white striped cloth draped over their heads. This iconography, with the cloth's evocation of the U.S. flag, made the artist into a focal point of international exchanges involving the American artist Jasper Johns and William Lieberman, curator of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, eventually making Kojima an indispensable presence in Tokyo pop. He also made paintings and occasionally gave performance. As of 2014, he is based in Kodaira, Tokyo.