Audrey Kawasaki: exclusive first look at new paintings

As regular BB readers know, we are huge fans of Los Angeles-based painter Audrey Kawasaki. Mark and I both have had original paintings by Audrey hanging in our homes for years and they continue to bring us great joy. Audrey's next solo show, titled "Midnight Reverie," opens September 8 at New York City's Jonathan LeVine Gallery. We are thrilled to present this exclusive sneak preview of these otherworldly new paintings, courtesy of Jonathan Levine Gallery, with thanks to Maléna Seldin. I think this is Audrey's most magnificent work yet.

Here's what Audrey said about the show:

“Some of the pieces have windows, like passage-ways into another world, yet it can also feel like limbo or static—wanting to walk through to the other side, but not being able to. Others are deep in the make believe, magical, mystical realm. In these, the black parts represent a void, emptiness or the unknown, yet they can also be something real and solid, like holes or shadows.”

More images after the jump, perhaps NSFW...

• [Charlie McHenry]

  Truly magnificent. I’m finding the new, “low-brow” art movement full of young, creative talent that is producing a wide variety of wonderful work. I’m also very fond, like you are, of the work of Mark Ryden. Crystal Wall Lancaster is also worthy of attention.

• [Sekino]

  I like how she’s getting into ‘fuller’ compositions with backgrounds, but I’ll always have a soft spot for the ones that seem to emerge out of the plain wood. That last one is a-ma-zing.

• [Nicholas Vargas]

  WOW….amazing! Love your choice of colors and the feelings I got when observing them.  Great work and I want something!

• [Jooley]

  Oh my god, I wish I could own the snake skeletons one and the bunny one BOTH. I’m loving how must more saturated in color her works have become.

• [SiD]

  Inspiring and beautiful!

• [Christopher Miller]

  Maybe it’s just me but these works seem very Trevor Brown-ish. I can never seem to find prints of stuff like this. She only has a single print for sale on her website right now for instance, and not the one I want.

• [Spitty Sumo]

  she’s a bit of a one-trick pony (with bedroom eyes).  it’s a lovely trick, i agree, but it’s only One trick.

• [Zarah Robinson]

  Yes, but I never seem to tire of them. They are all beautiful. Loving them. 

• [Jakki]

  I LOVE Audrey’s work!! So beautiful, the details are always so amazing. I love the woodcut look in these ones :)

• [Lootche Dub]

  You’ re a great artist Audrey, in your paintings , faces types really look like my girlfriend face. I begin to think you had seen her before  :)       Thanks for you…
  Loo

• [Nico Veenkamp]

  Great paintings. Some of them remind me of drawings by Aubrey Beardsley.

• [Layne]

  Typically wonderful stuff from Audrey… 
  I just love the way the wood grain weaves itself into the work w/o being a gimmick. 

  Are her paintings oil or a lighter medium like tempera?

• [Dominique Merven]

  I’m not the biggest fan of what Audrey’s done here. To clarify, I love her previous work. It is stunning. I appreciate that she’s trying to do something different, but for me it’s not entirely working and I’ve narrowed it down – the black colour-blocking thing really doesn’t do it for me. I think her forte is her use of muted colours. Would love to see what she came up with if she worked in the same soft colours, but with totally different subject matter…

• [Scott Elyard]

  Wow. The one with the snake skeleton is stunning.