TEENAGE KICKS: a solo exhibition of works by Hibiki Miyazaki

ZINC contemporary is pleased to announce TEENAGE KICKS, our second exhibition with 

Hibiki Miyazaki, Portland-based printmaker and artist. The exhibition, named after the pop punk song by The Undertones, alludes to cheeky childhood delights of the artist’s youth. 

Her surrealistic imagery and sugar-coated palette in the series transports the viewer into a faraway fantasy during this peculiar season of social distancing. 

The drawings were created, in part, with the playfully somber idea to, “draw as if you only had six months to live,” indicating the juxtaposition of darkness yet permissiveness to create as if there’s no tomorrow. 

Miyazaki’s ‘tongue-in-cheek’ work references a bygone era, sourcing archival inspiration from 1930-50’s illustrations from the West, Chinese and Indian propaganda art, and Flemish paintings of the 15th to 17th century. Beneath the facade of idyllic nostalgia and figurative sensibility, lies a trail of dark mystery, devoid of narrative or sensemaking. Instead, the artist depicts mystical symbols for the viewer to surface subconscious associations.

“I hide in the metaphorical bushes and wait for my subconscious to nibble at it.” 

- Hibiki Miyazaki

Hibiki Miyazaki participated in a two-person exhibition, PIECES OF STORIES, at ZINC contemporary in April 2017 with Melinda Tidwell, earning praise from Seattle Times art critic Gayle Clemans: “Miyazaki conjures up surreal narratives through a mixture of painting, drawing, print and handwritten word.”