Charcoal，watercolour，collage on paper

46.5 x 38 cm.18 1/4 x 15 in.

Dated ‘2011’ and signed ‘KATO’ on the upper right
EXHIBITED Chengdu, China, A4 Contemporary Arts Center, Parallet Far East Worlds, Dec 2,2012-Mar 24,2013
NOTE This work comes with frame hand-made by the artist.

IZUMI KATO
(b.1969-)
After graduating from the Department of Oil Painting of Musashino Art University at the age of 23, Izumi Kato started his personal exploration of art. He was born in a nondescript town that seems to be isolated from contemporary art in Shimane, Japan. Perhaps for this reason, he always retains his independence and individualism in the realm of art. Before his art was understood and accepted by the public, Kato lived an impoverished life and had to rely on his parents for support. Through the use of simple colors, his work always tries to explore the origin of life and depict the warmth of family.

Kato has been addicted to portraying human bodies since the very beginning of his career as an artist. He abandons realistic depiction but draws inspiration from embryos of humans and insects. The human beings he painted look like fetuses surrounded by amniotic fluid. These embryonic images also appear like aliens with fainted faces, creating a strong ambience with endless vitality. In his painting Untitled, embryo-shaped figures featuring bloated heads and feeble physiques in the center, together with crude land on the empty background, create a primeval, abstract world. The artist’s pared-down form of expression stimulates our imagination to consider the true essence of our existence. The human motifs that Kato painted continues inspiring sensory retrospections of viewers, making the subjects of his work more than just universal caring for humanity but conveying common feeling of mankind and the artist’s pious reverence for life.

Price estimate:
HKD：45,000 - 65,000
USD：5,800 - 8,400

Auction Result:
HKD: 51,750