If eyes truly are the windows to the soul, then the intensely staring, delinquent characters created by Yoshimoto Nara have a lot going on inside. As one of the best-known (and best-selling) Japanese artists of our time, Nara has earned this massive retrospective at the Hayward Gallery. It’s his largest ever UK exhibition by far: spanning not only his paintings, but also drawings, installations, and sculpture across a four-decades-long career.
Why go: Nara’s play with western pop culture and darker themes like climate change and nuclear war, all packaged up into a sugary-sweet package, is a real joy to look at. But it’s his painterly skill, when seen up close, which is the real treat.