Ozabu captures the minutiae of the body– the lines in the palm of a hand, the slight crease in the middle of the rib cage– but she leaves the emotions conveyed, and the story told, up to the viewer.
What’s stunning about Ozabu’s portraits is the way she connects humanity and nature. You’ll notice the insects that nestle near human faces or figures that appear unperturbed by this closeness. Some pieces are quite surreal. A rooster emerges from one woman’s head, a beak protrudes from another’s mouth. Hairstyles might fall more like petals, leaves and feathers.
Ozabu’s work also displays an interest in the folkloric connection between humans and animals, like in her Kitsune series, where a woman and fox essentially become one, which appeared in “(Wander),” her 2016 show at Thinkspace in Los Angeles. She often incorporates traditional elements, like kimonos and prayer beads, into her work, creating a timeless appeal.
She has brought her unique vision to fashion illustration as well. In 2017, Ozabu participated in SHOWstudio’s exhibition “Moving Kate,” a celebration of the enigmatic supermodel Kate Moss. The artist took inspiration from a mid-1990s Vivienne Westwood runway show, depicting Moss with a cinched waist and pushed-up bosom. She winks with her pout caught somewhere sweet and surly. It’s an image that’s sexy and subversive. The following year, she reinterpreted Nick Knight’s famed 1997 photo of Devon Aoki, where the model appears with a safety pin and a flower-filled gash in a forehead.
In Ozabu’s illustration, the flowers seem to explode and scatter from the gash, but you can see the artist’s attention to the original details in the way the skin of the forehead puffs up under the safety pin.
