* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Teiji Hayama’s paintings join together western and Japanese influences, combining different art historical periods varying from Christian art, Greek mythology to contemporary Japanese pop culture and Ukiyo-E.
Many of the figures are rife with symbolism, a tradition in Christian art.
Hayama’s pale, ethereal figures with frail bodies and pale tinited eyes often inspired by well-known images of female deities, portray an angelic appearance which clashes with a penetrating and unnerving glare directed at the viewer. Symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, pledges of love, tattoos depicted in the portraits represent the seat of emotions of the young girls, their convictions, belonging or identification with particular groups.
Teiji Hayama communicates the innocence of children by portraying nude girls. Nudity combined with innocence and vulnerability is often depicted in Japanese pop art. Hayama also wants to show the transition from childhood to adolescence, a physical and mental transitional stage involving social and psychological changes.
