Mika Kato
21 Jan - 26 Feb 2005
White Cube is pleased to present a new exhibition of paintings by Japanese artist Mika Kato. Kato (born 1975) makes intensely rendered oil paintings of young girl's faces, close-cropped and hallucinatory in quality, they create a portal into a fantastical and psychologically disturbing world.
Kato's technique is interesting since she starts not by sketching but by sculpting a doll out of clay, dressing it and then making a painting from that which is laborious and studied, a kind of evolving alter ego. "I wanted something that people had never seen before" she explains, "and that is how I came to be attracted to using doll faces as my starting point".
Mika Kato has exhibited internationally including Fondation Cartier, Paris; Des Moines Art Centre, Iowa; Palm Beach ICA, Florida and SMAK, Gent. In 2004 she won the Shinjin Prize for most promising young artist at Roppongi Crossing, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.
Also on view is a special project by Japanese painter Masako Ando. Born in 1976, this will be Ando's first exhibition outside of her native Japan.
Kato's technique is interesting since she starts not by sketching but by sculpting a doll out of clay, dressing it and then making a painting from that which is laborious and studied, a kind of evolving alter ego. "I wanted something that people had never seen before" she explains, "and that is how I came to be attracted to using doll faces as my starting point".
Mika Kato has exhibited internationally including Fondation Cartier, Paris; Des Moines Art Centre, Iowa; Palm Beach ICA, Florida and SMAK, Gent. In 2004 she won the Shinjin Prize for most promising young artist at Roppongi Crossing, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.
Also on view is a special project by Japanese painter Masako Ando. Born in 1976, this will be Ando's first exhibition outside of her native Japan.