Jiro Osuga: Café Jiro

About

Even as a young art student at the Royal College, Jiro Osuga stood out from the crowd. His unique, autobiographical paintings and intense shyness kept him apart from others; and in turn this isolation became a subject for his art. Alienation is central to his work, whether as a foreigner in a strange land - Osuga is Japanese - or as a solitary, introspective artist. But there is also a tremendous warmth and wit to his work, and an engaging self-mockery. For instance, many of the paintings are hinged, like latter day devotional panels. But instead of battling dragons, Saint Jiro has to contend with taking his mother sightseeing in London, or avoiding the cracks in the pavement.