IZUMI KATO (JAPAN, B. 1969)

There is a subtle yet powerful, primitive nature to Izumi Kato's works. His original paintings feature doll-like characters with larger-than-life lollipop heads, rounded bodies, and piercing eyes that gaze directly at the viewer. In his recent works, Kato maintains the same powerful image of figure and ground, but exaggerates the sexual organs of the figures, sometimes deliberately creating ambiguity in the gender of the figures.

In YOKIKAO No. 10 (Lot 52), Kato draws focus to the figure’s large eyes by using jarring colours to depict them, emphasizing their vacant, haunting gaze. As such, Kato's portrayal of the doll-like, ambiguously-gendered and sexually exaggerated pre-pubescent human form has been interpreted at times as a reflection of the trappings of contemporary Japanese society. Through his images, Kato not only explores the notion of an extended childhood and reluctance to mature and age in contemporary Japanese society, but also points to gender and age as the ultimate primal elements of universal human existence.