Hiroya Kurata
1 collaboration
A lot of artists have big dreams. Hiroya Kurata is one of them. But his big dreams revolve around the quiet joys of daily life, not the fading glamour of 'success.' "I feel like it's emotionally easier for me to paint now after telling myself: paint what I can now at this age." You can feel how liberating this approach is when you look at his work. His style is fun, loose and illustrative, a bit like the pages of a children's book. Kurata usually paints photographs he's taken of himself, his wife and three children. They hang out in places you recognise. A kitchen table, a river, a tennis court. The paintings ooze with the wholesomeness of a good family day out. But like any family, the paintings are subtly weird, too. "I draw the scenery in a detailed way," he explains. "But the faces are manga-ish, which is why there's a glaring contrast."