Yoshimoto Nara

I've been to the exhibition of Yoshimoto Nara's work in GEM last week. I'm still not sure what to think of it. He is an contemporary Japanese pop-artist [and pop-star in Japan] and he paints these innocent looking children with strong emotions showing in their eyes. I love his use of colors and the way he applies paint on the canvas - different transparent layers of contrasting colors, he also paints on pieces of canvas layered on wood. I especially liked the way the exhibition was built - in collaboration with designcollective Graf - and constructed together with students of the art academy in The Hague.
Maybe I should go to Japan for a while to understand the context of Japanese art - as so many good artists and designers come from Japan [and the worlds most healtiest people too!] I would love to go....