Fusing his native Japanese innocence with contemporary primal instincts, Kentaro Kobuke’s first solo show in Hong Kong warms and grabs the heart with an evocative fantasy world filled with contours, masks and the transcendence of men into nature and nature into men.

Drawing inspirations from the aesthetics of 18th century artworks from Japan, Kobuke engages in a form of story telling which tend to be contained within a single painting or illustration. Referencing pornography and animism, his works document the contemporary myth-making of endangered cultural heritage.

Born in Hiroshima in 1975, Kobuke graduated with an MA in Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2009. Since then he’s been based in London. Over the past ten years, he has held solo shows in Tokyo, Osaka, Paris, Seoul and London, in addition to taking part in a variety of group exhibitions. His recent exhibitions include Mokume, Daiwa-Anglo Japanese Foundation, London, 2011.