Ski or board at this Aspen, Colo., resort and come home with a Pop art piece by Takashi Murakami

Coolest thing on the slopes this winter: Japanese Pop artist Takashi Murakami’s lift tickets for Aspen Snowmass ski resort in Aspen, Colo.

The “wearable art” created by Murakami features quirky characters (pictured above, from left) Pom, the dog; Kaikai and Kiki; and the toothy Mr. Dob. And of course, lots of colorful smiling flowers.

Murakami’s super-flat creations and anime-type figures are featured in museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and Los Angeles’ Broad and are hot with collectors too.

For Aspen Snowmass, he created four eye-popping images. If you want to collect them all, you could visit four times ($99 for adults for a single day) or, if you’re a passholder, pay a $5 lost pass fee until you get them all.

Detail of a panel as the art handlers install the 2014 painting by Takashi Murakami, “In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow,” in the Broad Museum.

(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

The artsy lift tickets are part of an agreement between the ski resort and the Aspen Art Museum called Art in Unexpected Places. In the past, the resort’s lift tickets have featured the works of artists such as Anne Collier, who created lift tickets based on vinyl record albums, and Mark Bradford, David Shrigley and Mark Grotjahn. (Check out an online gallery of lift tickets from past seasons.)

By the way, the snowstorm that hit the West and Midwest meant that Aspen and Snowmass mountains opened last Saturday, earlier than scheduled.

Info: Aspen Snowmass, (800) 525-6200

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