Rider features imagery typical of Gajin Fujita's art: a stylized dragon, a Japanese goddess, and allusions to music. Here, Benzaiten (or Benten), the Buddhist goddess of music, wears headphones while holding a biwa, a four-stringed Japanese lute. The instrument is emblazoned with the brand name Fender, famous maker of electric guitars.

For his complex paintings, which range in scale from diminutive to mural size, Fujita takes inspiration from traditional Japanese art and American urban life and popular culture. Merging these diverse influences, he has created a body of work unified by a remarkable visual vocabulary that is uniquely his own. Fujita regularly uses materials and methods including spray paint (applied loosely and through intricately hand-cut stencils), paint markers, and gold leaf.

Gajin Fujita (American, born 1972), Rider (Benzaiten Music Goddess). Spray paint, paint markers, platinum, and 12-karat white gold on wood panel, 2017. 10 × 8 × 1 1/2 in. (25.4 × 20.3 × 3.8 cm). Purchased with funds from the Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2018.13. On view in the Wolfe Mezzanine in Story Lines: From Greek Myth to Haida Manga.