It took me a while to figure out why Jason Teraoka’s figurative paintings struck me as unique among much figurative painting. Is it the girlish yet barfy glitter swirling behind an uncertain man with an uncertain haircut? Or the sheepish way all of these eyes seem painfully aware of a potential viewer, without ever making eye contact? Is it the unexpected anxiety I feel, surrounded by these characters hovering at eye level? Yes, and more.
Striking is the landscape format these people are unwittingly caught within. The caught-ness is what they have in common, peering out from their (mostly) undescribed places.
