Maruyama Junna: Who Am I?

The talented young Japanese artist, Maruyama Junna, will be the protagonist of her first UK solo show with Dorothy Circus Gallery in London. Junna is currently rising in the contemporary Asian art scene as a promising Surrealist artist thanks to her masterful technique and a style rich in magical symbolism and kaleidoscopic palettes, which are at the same time inspired by the horror vacui of of Murakami and Kusama and the fresh impressionistic style of new surrealists such as the American Joe Sorren and the Japanese Hikari Shimoda. Junna’s new collection titled Who Am I?, is composed by 7 brand new oil on canvas artworks and two large size graphite works, and leads us to the discovery of the artist’s feelings inspired by stories, expectations and fragility of timeless generations of adolescents. Sparkling and sweet, Junna's language is extremely romantic and is at once enchanting and disarming. By portraying characters where the main aspects are self acceptance and the value of the unicity of the individuals, the artist embraces the theme of gender fluidity exploring all the nuances of opposite feelings and emotional complexities that constantly coexist and dwell during the growth time of our personality.

In a sort of anthology of the ego, each character is a contemplative hybrid that lives in a juxtaposition of bitterness and sweetness, a dichotomy that perfectly reflects the feeling between the hope for becoming the better version of ourself and fear of being misread or oppressed when expressing our true self.

Painting spontaneously using bright colours and illustrative techniques that combine material brushstrokes, lettering and stickers Junna explores and celebrates at the same time the introspective freedom of the imagination and that of the individual. Junna recalls fairy tail like atmospheres in which hybrid elf-eyed girls with animal features emerge to tell their stories in a vortex of delicate colours, wrapped in a floral explosion which mirrors the both the artist's autobiographical feelings and as well much broader cultural sensibilities.