Naisho

Founded In 1991, originally as Copro/Nason Fine Arts began as an entity to curate art exhibitions at museums and local galleries and publish lithograph & silk-screen prints. The first contemporary cutting edge artists that Copro/Nason worked with were Mark Ryden, Robert Williams, Big Daddy Roth, Shag, Pizz, Von Dutch, Coop and many others. In 1999 Copro/Nason Gallery was opened In Culver City and soon transcended the limits of Lowbrow. By incorporating gothic-inspired visons of fantasy, horror, and surrealistic excesses into an ambitious program, mixing acknowledged masters with newer talents such as Sas Christian, Amy Sol, Audrey Kawasaki, Lori Earley and many others Copro/Nason soon began to take shape. Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the dried film. Oil paints have been used in Europe since the 12th century for simple decoration, but were not widely adopted as an artistic medium until the early 15th century. Common modern applications of oil paint are in finishing and protection of wood in buildings and exposed metal structures such as ships and bridges. Its hard-wearing properties and luminous colors make it desirable for both interior and exterior use on wood and metal. Due to its slow-drying properties, it has recently been used in paint-on-glass animation. Thickness of coat has considerable bearing on time required for drying: thin coats of oil paint dry relatively quickly. The themes in Audrey Kawasaki's work are contradictions within themselves. Her work is both innocent and erotic. Each subject is attractive yet disturbing. Audrey's precise technical style is at once influenced by both manga comics and Art Nouveau. Her sharp graphic imagery is combined with the natural grain of the wood panels she paints on, bringing an unexpected warmth to enigmatic subject matter. The figures she paints are seductive and contain an air of melancholy. They exist in their own sensually esoteric realm, yet at the same time present a sense of accessibility that draws the observer to them. These mysterious young women captivate with the direct stare of their bedroom eyes.