The gallery is pleased to announce the opening of a Chelsea annex space HORTON & Co. with Spring Love by Asuka Ohsawa. With masterful brushwork, which has become her signature, Ohsawa’s most recent series of gouache on paper works combines elements of traditional Japanese erotic art with the cute innocence of Western fairy tales and pin-ups.

In exploring cross-cultural mores Ohsawa combines her nostalgia for the era of innocent sexuality with the more explicit Japanese tradition of shunga, which literally translates to “pictures of spring.” “What attracts me to pin-up and burlesque is the fact that they don’t reveal everything – rather, it is about the allusion to sweet pleasure, it is about the seduction, it is about the tease.” In this manner, the female-oriented fantasyland of Ohsawa’s past works is focused now upon a richly colored female protagonist who holds a constant and questioning gaze with the viewer.

Offering a deeper exploration into the juncture of soft femininity and bold sexuality, Ohsawa’s hand-drawn works employ densely patterned fabrics, intertwined figures, and architectural elements to heighten the implied eroticism. Deliberately hiding various sexual acts in nuanced fabric folds and carefully angled poses, the viewer is provided with a voyeuristic challenge and ultimately a visually compelling and alluring painting.

Asuka Ohsawa (b. 1973, Torrance, CA) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received a MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and a BFA from California State University, Long Beach. She has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Japanese American Historic Society, San Francisco, and the Asian American Arts Centre, New York, among others. Her work has been reviewed in numerous publications including: The N