Already with studios in Tokyo and New York, Takashi Murakami is set to open an animation studio in Los Angeles. His animation work is probably best known via Kanye West’s “Good Morning Video,” and the first full-length feature will grow from the shorts shown at Murakami’s well recieved mid-career retrospective. The studio will fall under the KaiKai Kiki production end of the Murakami brand. Look for the output (and possibly legend) of Murakami to grow in the near future. (Via LA TImes).

Last week the new Murakami exhibition opened in Frankfurt at the MMK Museum. After having been in Los Angeles and New York before, it is the next stop of the exhibition.

Here we give you an exclusive look at the artworks on display, as well as the environment that surrounds them. Once again an impressive show that is definitely worth checking out.

Many more images of the Murakami Frankfurt exhibition follow after the jump.

Fashion magazine Numéro Tokyo will start releasing some great reader give-aways with their October 2008 issue. The give-away will last for overall three months, starting in October and ending in December.
The October give-away is a real goodie – a Louis Vuitton produced mouse pad, featuring the Monogramouflage pattern, that was created this year by artist Takashi Murakami. In November they will be giving away a product by Mastermind Japan, more on that soon. Via Ako Tanaka.
Detailed images of the mousepad and the October issue of Numéro Tokyo follow after the jump.

The Bape LA store opens this week and last night they celebrated the occasion of the opening. Lots of celebrities showed up, including N.E.R.D., Nigo, Takashi Murakami, Mike Tyson, Dr. Romanelli and many more.
Thanks to Supertouch we can give you a look at the new store, the people that were at the opening and also the Bape L.A. exclusive Roadsta sneaker, which comes in an orange/purple colorway.
Check it all out after the jump.

A while back we reported about a special Sotheby’s auction that was put together by Damien Hirst and all proceeds were donated to the RED (Global Fund) foundation. Works by himself, Murakami, Koons and many other high profile artists went on sale in February on the auction.
To coincide with the auction (well, in the end a little bit later), Damien Hirst also created a series of t-shirts, featuring artworks from the auction. The t-shirts come in mens and womens sizes and feature an image of the artwork on the front and the signature by the artist who contributed the work on the back, below the (Product) RED logo. Our personal favorite is the Jeff Koons t-shirt that you see here above, but many other strong ones are in the offering. Of course all proceeds from the t-shirts also go to the Global Fund.
The t-shirts are now available for 30 Pounds each on Other Criteria, Damien Hirst’s website. Check out all t-shirts in the series after the jump.

In honor of the Murakami exhibition being held in their hometown, Brooklyn, at the Brooklyn Museum on April 5th, Lemar & Dauley is releasing a limited release of its “Spread Luv” t-shirt.
The “Spread Luv” BK edition will be released to select retailers on April 12th, limited to 92 (as in 1992) units manufactured and distributed. The colorways are Salmon Red and Blizzard white. Note the “Murakami” star in the design.

We reported about the new exhibition by Takashi Murakami exhibition opening at the Brooklyn Museum end of the week.
April 5–July 13, 2008
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery
4th and 5th Floors
The NY Times has a look at the space, some artworks and also the tremendous work involved with moving the exhibition from LA to Brooklyn. Check out the slideshow here.

Here comes a nice anecdote from LA Weekly. End of last year a massive billboard was put up in LA for the exhibition of Takashi Murakami. Not long after it went up it was tagged by Augor and Revok of MSK and Seventh Letter Crew. Somebody send pictures of it to Murakami. He liked it so much, that he had the billboard removed and shipped back to his Kaikai Kiki studio in Tokyo. Via Wooster Collective.

Once again KaiKai Limited has released a new series of Takashi Murakami prints. This time they dropped the “Creatures of Planet 66″ series, all in all a collection of 4 prints. They are all now available in the Honeyee Store.

Kaikai Kiki released some nice new Murakami works. Overall four new pieces are now available from the Honeyee Store. Make sure to check it out!