The works of internationally celebrated Japanese artist Takashi Murakami span a wide range of fine art forms, from painting and sculpture to commercial media including fashion, merchandise, and animation. Murakami’s Champagne Supernova is a celebrated series of prints, showcasing his iconic smiling flowers. Renowned for blurring the line between high and low arts, he coined the term 'superflat', which describes both the aesthetic of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of post-war Japanese culture and society. Superflat is also a term used to define Murakami's distinctive artistic style, as well as the work of other Japanese artists who have been influenced by him. He founded Kaikai Kiki Co in 2001 — an enterprise that invests in the production and promotion of artwork, the management and support of selected young artists, general management of events and projects, and the production and promotion of merchandise — based in Tokyo. Kaikai Kiki is the first Japanese company looking to the future to develop and promote state-of-the-art contemporary artworks. He holds a B.F.A. (1986), M.F.A. (1988), and Ph.D. (1993) from the Tokyo University of the Arts.