Perrotin Hong Kong is pleased to present the gallery’s first solo exhibition with Japanese artist Mr. since 2016, titled People misunderstand me and the contents of my paintings. They just think they are nostalgic, cute, and look like Japanese anime. That may be true, but really, I paint daily in order to escape the devil that haunts my soul. The said devil also resides in my blood, and I cannot escape from it no matter how I wish. So I paint in resignation. The exhibition showcases a significant progression in the artist’s visual language and themes over the past several years.
Along with the brand-new series of paintings, the exhibition features several works created over the past six years which highlight Mr.’s technical drawing strengths beyond painting. Ranging from the “kawaii” (cute) to the “kowai” (scary, dark), this large selection of work also reflects his creative journey through the high and low, bright and dark explorations of various subject matters.
As Mr. has been credited as one of the leading artists from Takashi Murakami’s Superflat movement, his highly influential artworks have elevated the art form of the masses that is manga and anime into a high form of expression, while leading the way for many artists to follow in his footsteps.
At face value, Mr.’s seeming erotic anime-style depicts prepubescent boys and girls, however, the deeper meaning is the product of escapism from the artist’s own dislocated family structure. His father, at the bottom of the social hierarchy as a common laborer, worked with chemicals in a plastic moulding factory, and his mother was a devout follower of a fanatic religious cult. While a high school student at the age of 17, Mr.’s brother was placed in a protection facility by police for over a decade after violently escalating a domestic quarrel. In this unstable family environment, Mr. often disappeared into the world of solitary play in order to escape from his reality.
Mr.
Main Artwork : 15:53 While Listening to Tokyo Broadcast Station Radio, 2017. Acrylic on linen mounted on wood panel. 180.2 × 162 cm | 70 15/16 × 63 3/4 in. ©2017 Mr./Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Perrotin
Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong | 50 Connaught Road Central, 17th Floor Central - Hong Kong, Hong Kong
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