One of my most favourite people, Jun Iseyama, in the world, who is also one of the best artists I know, is having a show in Chelsea at the moment. The opening was on Friday, so I went to see her (she's moved far away from here which is very saddening) and catch up with others but the definite highlight was seeing her beautiful works. While some might find them disturbing with their sexual yet childlike imagery, I find so much beauty in the grotesqueness of the caricatures and the flashes of colours across the paper.
From the press release:
With Images of Untrusted Divine Things, Iseyama merges her own cast of hybrid, sexualized, and child-like characters with scenes from Goya’s infamous Caprichos series. Mimicking, tweaking and deconstructing the iconic scenes of 18th century Spanish social and political satire, Iseyama develops a foundation to express her own desires, anxieties and fears.
Iseyama navigates a balance between past and present, Japan and the West, self awareness and naïveté, darkness and comedy. These contradictions are manifested in her visual style. Dark, dry, graphite lines collide with wet, drippy, vibrant bursts of watercolor.
