Takashi Murakami at Gagosian — artnews.com

Takashi Murakami, Isle of the Dead, 2014, acrylic, gold leaf, and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on wood panel, 141¾" x 189". ROBERT MCKEEVER/©2014 TAKASHI MURAKAMI AND KAIKAI KIKI CO., LTD., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED/COURTESY GAGOSIAN GALLERY Murakami understands that if you’re going to spend serious cash making a show, you may as well go all the way. He opened with a 56-ton, 21-foot-tall replica of a Zen Buddhist sacred gate (complete with soaring wooden columns and a stone base), which gave way to a pair of 14-foot-tall karajishi, the lions that protect temples. They are devil-like and monstrous, equal parts mythical deities and ferocious action figures. They hold huge clubs, hungry for violence.

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