Yoshitomo Nara, a contemporary Japanese pop artist known for sculptures and paintings of doe-eyed figures, was arrested in late February for tagging graffiti in the Union Square subway station, a New York Police Department official said Monday.

Nara was arrested at 3:10 a.m. on Feb. 27 and charged with criminal mischief, possession of graffiti instruments, making graffiti and resisting arrest, detective Martin Speechley told Kyodo News in a phone interview.

An official at a New York art gallery where Nara's exhibits are currently on display said the artist has already been released.

Nara, 49, who lives and works in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, was in New York for a solo exhibition of his work at the Marianne Boesky Gallery that runs Feb. 28 through March 28.

The online edition of Art in America magazine said Nara was caught tagging a graffiti portrait of two Japanese friends in the subway station and he was optimistic about his two days in lockup.

It was "a nice experience in my life," the artist was quoted as saying. He said the environment in which he found himself was like something in the movies.

Nara emerged on the art scene during Japan's pop art movement in the and has held solo exhibitions worldwide. His works are on display at New York's Museum of Modern Art.