2017 Catalogue Archive

Tokyo-based Miwa Komatsu populates her vibrant paintings with mystical Japanese creatures in a chaos of line and color. The beasts are shown in their traditional roles as guardians and gate keepers; here two of them present their offspring to the shining crystal above them. The intensely worked lines in this piece are evidence of her past as a printmaker and draftsman, and chronicle her energetic application, sometimes directly from paint tubes. Komatsu has performed her expressive painting process in front of live audiences and a pair of her Japanese lion-dog statues currently resides in the British Museum.