BEAUTY: Painting--Tomoko Nagai

I am drawn to the art of Japanese artist Tomoko Nagai. While she may use children's plush toys and stuffed animals in her imagery, evoking the Japanese sense of kawaii (a cultural obsession with anything considered "cute" or sweet or childlike), there is definitely an unsettling undercurrent in the hallucinatory way the narratives are presented. This is clearly not Hello Kitty...look closer at how Teddy Bears are piled on top of one another in a strange sort of orgiastic excess while the natural world engulfs toys and children, the safety of bedrooms are threatened by forests, and everyday objects like clocks and tea pots float, Chagall-esque, in a messy swirl of darkness.

http://tomokonagai.com/