Collector 

Hiro Yamagata's painting, "Collector," presents us with an open-air display of iconic artworks amidst a bustling park scene. At the heart of this collection, we see the Mona Lisa, Leonardo's enigmatic masterpiece, a symbol of Renaissance humanism and artistic genius. The Mona Lisa's presence here invites us to consider the journey of images through time. Originally, Leonardo sought to capture the inner spirit of a person, her "anima." Now, centuries later, Yamagata presents her as a commodity, displayed alongside other masterpieces for consumption. The gesture of display itself echoes ancient Roman traditions, where conquered art was paraded as trophies, yet here, the act is democratized, brought to the people in a park, a stage for a collective, almost carnivalesque viewing experience. The act of collecting art has become a primal urge. The collective memory of art history is not linear but cyclical, resurfacing, evolving, and taking on new meanings in different contexts.