Acrylic, pen on canvas

72.7 x 60.6 cm. 28 5/8 × 23 7/8 in.

PROVENANCE
Whitestone Gallery, Hong Kong
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

This work is accompanied by a letter of guarantee issued by Whitestone Gallery, Hong Kong

A Mission Led by Divine Beasts!
The Artistic World of Miwa Komatsu

Born in 1984 in Sakagi Town, Nagano, Miwa Komatsu has been close to all kinds of wild animals in nature since she was a child, and her connection with natural beings has created a unique worldview and enriched her imagination, which has led her to paint a colourful world in which divine creatures are intertwined with the souls of human beings. Despite the artist's young and fragile appearance, the beasts under her brush are free and wild, with dazzling colours in the large frames. She uses her brush to connect the real world and the spiritual world. Komatsu meditates before creating, seeking inner peace. When she opens her eyes, she draws the beasts that are in dialogue with her, and sometimes she even uses her body as a paintbrush to express the power and beauty of the beasts. Her unique way of creation is a new language, combining her own experience and painting style, which is exactly why her works go viral.

In 2013, at the age of 29, Komatsu was selected as a candidate for the PRIX CANSON 2013 art prize in France. Her sculpture Guardian Lion Dog was exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London and was subsequently collected by the British Museum, making it the youngest artist in the museum's collection at that time. With such an achievement, Komatsu is still focused and transcendent, upholding her reverence for the divine spirits and purity amid a complicated world. This auction presents two of her oil paintings on the theme of “Divine Beasts”, injecting a brand new viewing experience for the viewers from a diversified perspective.

A Beautiful Realm of Symbiosis

In Embracing between Heterogeneous Species (Lot 16), which was completed in 2018, a flying bird-shaped beast leaps out, her colourful feathers fluttering in the wind, displaying a diversity of life. Komatsu's filled her huge pupils with red colour, showing a passionate gaze. Although the bird-shaped beast occupies the main space of the painting, the artist outlines a crawling dragon in black and white lines on the top, and a heterogeneous creature on the bottom. The three different kinds of creatures are intertwined with each other, living in harmony despite all the differences, which shows the beautiful vision that “everything has a soul”, and that we co-exist harmoniously.

The Colour of Affection

In At Owl's Forest (Lot 17), Komatsu used bright peach as the background colour, presenting a magnificent owl that takes up all the space horizontally. Its silhouette is traced in black and then filled with gold to create a glossy texture. The sun on top of its head is a symbol of strength and hope. The artist's unconventional brushwork reveals the beauty of the delicate and vivid interplay of colours. A small owl is resting soundly under the big owl's wing, its round eyes are looking at the viewer with curiosity for the outside world and its readiness to explore the world with its mother. It is touching to see how naturally the two of them show a tacit understanding of each other. The artist even uses white lines to draw several symbols, as if telling secrets between nature and living souls. The colours and lines intertwine freely, showing humanity inside animals.

Miwa Komatsu insists on integrating her personal experiences into her creations, connecting human beings with nature, divine beasts, spirits, and other non-physical worlds, which gives us abundant inner strength whenever we stop to look. The colours hover and dance, striking every viewer's heart, blossoming into a silent flower of life.

Price estimate:
HKD 250,000 - 350,000
USD 32,100 – 44,900