As part of the body of works that were created during the artist’s tenure at the Residence Mirai Program in Berlin in 2012, these two works are most representative of Izumi Kato’s household subject - fascinating yet enigmatic creatures with embryo-like heads and fully developed limbs. Kato depicts these figures with a silhouette of anonymity, giving them strange oval-shaped faces with features rendered in simple forms and strong colours. His magical figures call to mind the primitive arts, with expressions that evoke totems and the animalist belief that a spiritual force runs through living and mineral worlds alike. Painted during the artist residency program in 2012 as part of an initiative where East Asian artists were given the opportunity to work in Berlin, as well as being introduced to the European market, the two works perfectly embody the artist’s growth and maturity since his participation in the Venice Biennale in 2007, further propelling him onto the international stage with an ever-increasing reputation as a new, complex and innovative artist.