Size: 117 x 80 cm
Mayuka Yamamoto is a Japanese artist known for her works depicting children, sporting animal features and enigmatic expressions. Born in 1964 in Okayama, Japan, Yamamoto received her master degree at Masashino Art University in Tokyo in 1990, and joined the Japanese Government Overseas Study Program for Artists to continue her studies in London until 1999.
Emerging from the wake of Japan’s first generation of artists, including the likes of Murakami Takashi and Yoshitomo Nara, Mayuka Yamamoto has been revealed as one of Japan’s leading second-generation painters. She has shown a new style of painting which evokes questions about pain and fear in childhood.
The boy in the animal suit comes as a result of her ideas about physical and psychological changes. Whether he wears a penguin suit or a deer’s horn, his facial expression remains calm and subtle which makes it hard to perceive his true emotions.
Yamamoto explores the idea of the human instinct, parenthood and childhood. Her work combines artificial portraits of children with animal characteristics, which, despite their figurative and realistic characteristics, have an alienating and absurd effect. She currently lives and works in Gunma, Japan.