Maiko Kasai

signed and titled in English and dated 2013 on the reverse

Yuka Tsuruno Gallery, Tokyo
Private Asian Collection

Japan, Tokyo, Yuka Tsuruno Gallery, Neighbor's Garden, 2013

This work is generally in good condition. Please note it was not examined under ultraviolet light.
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Surreal mindscapes and imaginary young girls together form the fantastical compositions of Maiko Kasai’s works. Born in 1983 in Aichi, Japan, the young Japanese female artist utilises forlorn spaces found within magazine clippings and strangers’photographs as a source of inspiration behind her series of oil painting works, which have garnered critical attention in the Japanese art world since receiving her MA in oil painting from Kanazawa College of Art Graduate School in 2007. Warped in colours and compositions, Kasai’s paintings are often guised as a dazzling visual labyrinth on the surface, strategically tempting the viewer in exploring further beyond the convoluted brushwork. Bearing a curious resemblance to the coloured works by Raymond Pettibon, the artist’s brushwork are at once bold and fl uid; with the ability to form into a harmonious whole, yet also disseminate into infi nite strokes of lines. Maiko Kasai’s skillful approach to rendering paint and space in relation to her interest in refl ecting psychological conflict, has contributed to her position as one of the most promising young artists in the contemporary Japanese art scene, with works featured in the Daisuke Miyatsu Collection and Takahashi Collection.

Featured in her solo exhibition “Neighbor’s Garden” at the Yuka Tsuruno Gallery in 2013, Don’t Take My Calf! is considered to be a major piece within the young artist’s career. On first view, a cluster of lines and paint are seen swirling and gravitating towards a central point. Upon a closer inspection, three compositional elements can be found: a long blue hair girl standing on the right; another girl holding onto a calf on the left; and finally a diagonal ladder situating in between. The three fi gures are depicted as if they have been paused in the midst of a narration, while the surrounding landscape, waving of the hair and attire, suggest a continual motion within. Brilliantly illustrated, the motifs of paradox and irony precisely form the core foundation of Kasai’s artistic practice. “These paintings weave together landscapes and information from the real world with my own personal stories and narratives.” The young girls in her works, as well as the aesthetics are, in reality, embodiments of the inevitably and universal psychological conflict felt within today’s society. Through her painting, the artist sentimentally attempts at depicting empty spaces abandoned from local cityscapes, in hopes of transforming them into a painterly sanctuary, softly protecting endless fascination within.