Often inserting phantom characters in her paintings, Shiki Taira crafts mineral pigment works on silk that mix classical Japanese painting with contemporary sensibilities. These creatures seem to coexist with the subjects in this work, providing more lighthearted fare than terror.
“I enjoy deforming the distinctive features of a person’s skeleton when I paint that person and bring out unlimited images come to my mind while I paint phantoms,” the artist has said. “We have an idea the gods dwell in various creatures and nature traditionally in Japan. Phantom is a part of these ideas and painted and printed in subject of Ukiyo-e in Edo-period by Hokusai Katsushika and others.”
See more of Taira’s work below.
The twin brothers who work under the moniker "Perez Bros" were first exposed to the car culture of Los Angeles in their youth, and to this day, it informs their collaborative painting practice. Their current show at Thinkspace Projects, titled "Cruise Night(Office)," collects some of their recent auto-filled scenes. It runs through the end of the month at the space.
Ever the astute aesthete,