Yeo says she was early on influenced by Pablo Picasso. Not perhaps in style but in philosophy. She had just been made aware then of the Spanish painter. To hear her say it, being introduced to Picasso’s art set her free.
A huge part of her work — even the more recent ones — is influenced by the famous Japanese artist, Yoshitomo Nara, who is most known for sculptures and paintings that juxtapose big-eyed, child faces with gory details.
Having come to the fore of the Japanese Pop Art movement in the 1990s, Yoshitomo Nara’s subject matter of his sculptures and paintings is deceptively simple: most works depict often pastel-hued children and animals drawn with confident, cartoonish lines) with little or no background. Nara’s children, appear at first to be cute and even vulnerable, but sometimes brandish weapons like knives and saws. Their wide eyes often hold accusatory looks that could be sleepy-eyed irritation at being awoken from a nap — or that could be undiluted expressions of hate. Eventually, Yeo Kaa admits that she had to refrain from observing Nara’s works after some time. She started minding her own life and immediate surroundings.
Provenance: Provenance: Arndt, Berlin, Germany