Somewhere between Kawanabe Kyōsai's yokai portraiture - where the simplified face becomes a container for uncanny interiority - and Philip Guston's late figuration, in which blunt rounded forms insist on personhood without flattering it, Umz's drawing positions itself with quiet certainty. The rounded triangular body is the first commitment; the half-lidded eyes and flat horizontal mouth arrive as conclusions, not decorations.
Somewhere between Kawanabe Kyōsai's yokai portraiture - where the simplified face becomes a container for uncanny interiority - and Philip Guston's late figuration, in which blunt rounded forms insist on personhood without flattering it, Umz's drawing positions itself with quiet certainty. The rounded triangular body is the first commitment; the half-lidded eyes and flat horizontal mouth arrive as conclusions, not decorations.
- Curatorial note, wifärt gallery