Artist spotlight: Audrey Kawasaki

Audrey Kawasaki is a Los Angeles based Avant Garde painter, I have been following Audrey Kawasaki’s work for nearly five years by now; my curiosity about her re-awoken once I stumbled across her personal Instagram. For a young female artist of just 31 years old, she seems very humble about her talent, posting personal artefacts on the social networking app, most recently about her trip to the UK with her partner.

When you really look at her pieces though, your eyes bathing in the great depth of detail that is incorporated to each of the (mostly) oil on wood canvases; a myriad of beauty and femininity – you can understand why her work has granted her cult recognition. With a celebrity even getting one of her work’s tattooed on her arm on reality series, LA INK, an act which identifies itself as the epitome of true admiration.

Kawasaki cites her influences as the likes of painter Gustav Klimt, and illustrator and decorative artist, Alphonse Mucha. Apart from the obvious similarity – the three artists syncroncrinised muses; the female form and beauty of women, there is also a strong tie between Kawasaki’s work to theirs in the way in which Kawasaki portrays women, often provocatively in the same slightly sexualised and vulnerable gaze.

Kawasaki says her doe eyed, young beauties were inspired by the Japanese animation; anime and manga she grew up on as a child. You can see this clearly in her similarly wide eyed, perfectly proportioned representation of the female body we see by her painted ladies forms. When asked about being confronted with women in real life who embody the essence of the girls she paints she explains she would be intimidated ‘I can’t look directly at them’ Audrey jokes; reiterating the power of the soft feminine characters she captures on canvass.

Throughout the years Kawasaki’s girls have matured, evolved and become a little darker. Probably reflecting the artists transition from twenty something to thirty. There is something strangely relatable about the girls Kawasaki paint’s, their strong sexuality and vulnerability making them seemingly more human. Audrey Kawasaki also titles each image, sometimes ambiguously and sometimes frankly, giving us a further insight into her characters story, this artist technique really helps ground our perceptions of her beauty queens.

Audrey’s talent and cult recognition is reflected in the prices of her most recent work’s with prints fetching anything between £500-£1000 online. Kawasaki has also created some notable merchandise over the years, including commissions for ‘Hint Mint’s 2011 Holiday range, in which Kawasaki designed the collectable holiday edition mint tins, to her new release in 2013, a limited edition cup and saucer set with one of her latest designs, which are now being bought for triple the original price by fans online.

Kawasaki’s work floats helplessly on the waves between reality and fantasy, her new work notably bolder and somewhat psychedelic than before, perhaps indicative of maturing style, or maturing characters. As she’s stands true as a young female artist, we can be assured we haven’t seen the last of her captivating characters yet.

Stephanie Williamson

Click here to see the rest of Audrey’s artwork.