Kazuhiro Hori was born in Japan in 1969 and graduated from Kanazawa College of Art.
He is known for his large canvas whose inspiration comes from traditional shunga Japanese erotic prints, to question the delicate theme of sexuality during the teen age. Hori elaborates a provocative and distinctive scenario, juxtaposing young Japanese students and intricated backgrounds of toys and sweets. In his misleading, ultra-coloured images, the sweetness of sugar unveils the bitter contrast of a transgressive symbology, the eyes of girls laying next to teddy bears are wide open, and dazed looks, surrounded by scattered pills, cigarettes, indicating the contrast between innocence and the darkest rituals of the transition to adulthood.
In his melancholic and moving artworks, the artist highlights the contradictions of contemporary Japanese society by sensitizing on female emotions.
His work has been awarded worldwide, including winning Second Place at the Nagano Winter Olympic Memorial Culture Program in 1999 as well as the Incentive Prize, which he received during Hori’s exhibition in 2014 at the Dokuritsu Exhibition.
