For me, painting is not about pursuing fame, gaining a reputation and being praised by the art critique. Painting is a personal realm, one in which to hide, to cry out and to escape. When I need to speak up, painting is my tongue; when I need to make a war, it is my spear; when I am tired and need a place to lie down, it is my shelter; and when I have committed a sin as a human, painting is my intimate confession. I choose to employ an illustrative approach to making my pictures. Narrative imagery is still needed in the contemporary world, as mythology is still alive. Mythology will always exist as long as humans continue to make art and tell stories.
Somewhere between Kuniyoshi, the last great master of ukiyo-e printmaking and the godfather of brutal surrealism in Japanese art, and Toshio Saeki, the foremost practitioner of bizarre, beautiful ukiyo-e inspired erotica sits Mu Pan, a Brooklyn-based artist channelling all the darkest, most surreal elements of his genius predecessors into large, complex watercolours and oil paintings. Mu’s work is not for the faint of heart; it’s riddled with explorations of the darker sides of humanity and serves as a fantasy satirisation of contemporary life.
Granted, Mu may not be to everyone’s tastes – who can blame you for not wanting pictures of large-breasted lizards under siege by lilliputian armies hanging on your living room wall – but for those of us with a predilection for the weird, this guy offers the very finest blend of prodigious artistic talent and twisted imagination.
Empty Kingdom
PAGAN WOOD 