Previews: Aya Takano – “UNIO MYSTICA” @ Perrotin (New York)

Tonight, Aya Takano is opening her first solo with Galerie Perrotin in New York with a show consisting of eight oil paintings, more than 50 drawings, one skateboard deck painting, and one paper clay sculpture. Entitled UNIO MYSTICA, the new body of provocative work from the Japanese artist continues to push the limits of her narrative by “exploring sexuality as an expression of the union between the soul and the divine.” Many of the new pieces feature her instantly recognizable manga-inspired young girls in the erotic embrace with different creatures, which is apparently only a metaphor to “convey the ability of living beings to intermingle with various kinds of energy manifest in the universe.” She further explains – “It may be that the heroic takes the form of a lion. In the mythological world, there are no distinctions between humans and animals.”