luuuuuurve

I found yet another artist in my internet travels with whom I've fallen in love. Audrey Kawasaki's paintings are STUNNING. She paints these charming art-nouveau inspired wispy girls on wood. The girls have oversized, incredibly expressive eyes and juicy lips, an obvious anime/manga influence. Most of the figures are transparent, so you get to see the woodgrain through them, which gives the paintings a natural, warm feeling. Audrey also retains a sense of edginess by incorporating explicit and metaphorical sexual imagery, as well as the occasional skull or animal skeleton.

Here is a big ole' image dump of some of my favorites from her website:















Audrey currently has a solo show at the Copro Nason gallery in Santa Monica. I desperately wish I could be there. And even though the show only opened three days ago, all her prints and originals are already sold out. All her prints in her personal website's store have also been sold out for some time now. Curses! I really need to take a trip to California one of these days to check out their art scene. Goodness knows there's no shortage of local talent here in New York, but the art establishment in Cali seems more lighthearted, varied, and less elitist, if I'm basing my impression on the art alone. Bits of California culture in general (skateboarding, movie-making, pop culture...) seem to be allowed (embraced?) into the art scene there. For someone to be big in New York, their art has to be Very. Serious. It's like... lighten up! You'd never see something anime-inspired in Chelsea. Maybe Brooklyn, though... Good thing I live there :]