Minami Kobayashi (b.1989) is a Japanese artist based in London. Covering a significant period of development in her practice as a painter, this publication coincides with her second major solo exhibition, The Song of Jujubes, at Frestonian Gallery, London. Kobayashi's paintings depict familiar yet s...

Minami Kobayashi (b.1989) is a Japanese artist based in London. Covering a significant period of development in her practice as a painter, this publication coincides with her second major solo exhibition, The Song of Jujubes, at Frestonian Gallery, London. Kobayashi's paintings depict familiar yet surreal scenes, created from an amalgamation of memories, places and ordinary people. In her dreamlike ambiguous narratives, nature, animals and humans are given equal status; her realms are symbiotic societies with multiple creatures.

She captures transitory and fluctuating moments, depicting her protagonists in states of flux, vulnerability and openness. Rendered in a postImpressionist palette, her compositions are a potent mix of playfulness and deeper themes of human and natural life. Bringing together eleven new canvases, The Song of Jujubes takes its title from a song that the artist used to sing as a teenager in her hometown of Nagoya, Japan.

It begins with a girl eating one jujube fruit every night, wondering what she will do when they are all gone. Imbued with a sense of nostalgia and loss, the works consider what 'home' means and the strong relationship between people and place.