CHILDREN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL
TAKASHI MURAKAMI
CITY/STATE
Washington, DC
LOCATION IN HOSPITAL
CT/PET Scan Suite
INSTALL DATE
2022
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ABOUT THE INSTALLATION
In 2020, RxART partnered with Takashi Murakami to transform the CT/PET scan suite at Children’s National Hospital into a colorful landscape filled with the artist’s iconic smiling flowers. Here, they cover the walls and wrap across the scanner, making a previously stark and often frightening piece of machinery less intimidating, and potentially even welcoming. Pediatric patients of all ages receive scans in this unit—neonates, toddlers, young children, adolescents, and young adults—and the uniquely uplifting experience of encountering Murakami’s work helps alleviate anxiety associated with over 2,500 scans performed each year.
This project was made possible through the generous support of Robert and Aimee Lehrman, Gagosian, and donors to the Iana dos Reis Nunes Fund. To learn more about the project’s impact, please click here.
Artwork: © Takashi Murakami / Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Photos by Kenson Noel.
ABOUT THE HOSPITAL
Children’s National Hospital, based in Washington, D.C., is transforming pediatric medicine for all children. Children’s National has been designated twice as a Magnet® hospital, demonstrating the highest standards of nursing and patient care delivery. This pediatric academic health system offers expert care through a convenient, community-based primary care network and specialty outpatient centers in the D.C. metropolitan area, including the Maryland and Northern Virginia suburbs. Children’s National is home to the Children’s National Research Institute and Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation and is the nation’s seventh-highest NIH-funded children’s hospital. It is recognized for its expertise and innovation in pediatric care and as a strong voice for children through advocacy at the local, regional, and national levels.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Takashi Murakami (b. 1962, Tokyo, Japan) studied Nihonga, the traditional style of Japanese painting, which serves as a starting point for his flat, cartoon-inspired motifs and style. He blends together the distinctions between “high” and “low” art, ancient and contemporary, and East and West. His works carry cultural critiques and raise questions concerning topics such as cultural appropriation, the contemporary art market, and consumerism. Murakami studied at Tokyo University of the Arts.
He has held solo exhibitions at numerous institutions including the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; Qatar Museum Gallery Alriwag, Doha; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,IL; the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; and more across the globe. Murakami is represented by Gagosian Gallery and Perrotin.
