‘twist’, 2004  image © hideaki kawashima courtesy tomio koyama gallery hideaki kawashima’s paintings are filled with luminous, full red lips and large, marble-like eyes. following an ardent tradition of portraiture, the artist is interested in the features of people that are burned into our memories. the works have ventured into the gothic, abstracted, with contours of balloon-shaped heads and wisps of hair. the figures are delicate and dainty, but they have been dealt  brueghelian delights to arrest the roving eye. kawashima, who studied with yoshimoto nara served a two-year stint as a buddhist monk.

prints available here

hideaki kawashima ‘impossibility’, 2008 image © hideaki kawashima courtesy tomio koyama gallery

hideaki kawashima ‘scarlet’, 2006 image © hideaki kawashima courtesy tomio koyama gallery

hideaki kawashima ‘slip’, 2006 image © hideaki kawashima courtesy tomio koyama gallery

hideaki kawashima ‘tentacle’, 2005 courtesy tomio koyama galleryhideaki kawashima ‘drops’, 2004 courtesy tomio koyama gallery