Born in Aomori Prefecture, Japan in 1959. Nara received his BFA in Oil Painting in 1985 and an MFA in 1987 from Aichi University of the Arts, and finished his studies at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany in 1993. After 2000, he moved his base from Germany to Japan. In 2018, he established a private contemporary art space “N’s Yard” in Nasu-Shiobara City, where his studio is located. Nara is widely known for his paintings of children with big eyes. Their eyes are piercing, sometimes with a fearless smile or a sullen wrinkle between their eyebrows, as they are throwing a straightforward message to adults. In addition to the paintings, sculptures like the representative “Aomori Dog” and installations using huts constructed from scrap wood in collaboration with the creative unit graf have also received high international acclaim. Nara’s works are always exhibited at major contemporary art museums around the world. The fact that Nara’s works have been enthusiastically received throughout the world proves that art can transcend language and culture, reaching people everywhere. His works are acquired by contemporary art collections worldwide, including the British Museum, MoMA (NY), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The National Museum of Art (Osaka), The Aomori Museum of Art, and Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.