Hiro Kurata

Artist Bio

Hiro Kurata is an artist who is based in Brooklyn, New York.

One of the characteristics that makes Kurata’s painting unique is the way he renders his figures with distortion but yet well balanced. The figures looking innocent and strong are often portrayed as a baseball player, heroes from the Greek myths or comical characters from animation works. Kurata spent his childhood going back and forth between the U.S and Japan. The cultural differences between those places have been a natural source for the themes in his paintings. He skillfully digests the gaps between the two countries and expresses it in his work with a sense of cynicism. Depicted in bright pastel colors, the disproportioned figures simultaneously show confidence and sickness. Innocent but frightened by an enemy at the same time, his subjects being covered with macho bodies seem to hide inside extremely weak souls. Thus the heroes Kurata creates give viewers a complex impression within which happiness and nihilistic feeling coexist. (bio)

Hiro Kurata’s Website