SETSUKO

In her sculptures, Setsuko renders natural subjects with rich, tactile surfaces, uniting organic and constructed elements to represent the symbiosis of life and death. In her gouache and watercolor paintings of still-life and floral arrangements, domestic interiors, and landscapes, she conveys the joy embodied in crafted objects, organic forms, and atmospheric spaces. Combining ancient Eastern traditions with twentieth-century Western ideas, Setsuko interprets the everyday in ways that are at once lyrical and precise.

As the exhibition’s title suggests, cats make repeated appearances in the works on view. The lively creatures, of which Setsuko has owned dozens, have cropped up frequently in the artist’s practice over the years, always conveying a sense of agency and animating the spaces through which they move. Cats are important symbols in Japanese folklore regarded as possessing special abilities; the classification kaibyō (“strange cat”) includes bakeneko, a yōkai or supernatural entity with the ability to shapeshift into human form. Maneki-neko, on the other hand, are usually depicted as waving figurines empowered to bring their owners good luck. Setsuko’s late husband, Balthus, also referred to himself as the “King of Cats.”