I was ready to dismiss Mr.’s work as typical manga when I first saw it. Big-eyed, blue-haired, and cartoony, the adolescent portraitures seemed ripped from the Japanese comic books my classmates used to read back in elementary school. Taking a closer look, the Lehmann Maupin Gallery presents Mr.’s work as a funhouse of anime — larger-than-life, dizzyingly jubilant, and … verging on disturbing.

Oversized sculptures of heads perkily sitting on the gallery floor bring to mind the clown finale in a game of put-put — you want to skip all the paintings to fixate on the hole in the sculptures’ heads. No epicathal fold here as Mr. turns the eye of “Strawberry Voice” into a window. The eye really is the window to the soul. Guys, if you’ve ever wanted to know what goes on in a girl’s head, now’s your chance. But be forewarned: it’s cute overload in there. The girl doesn’t have a thought in her brain but kewpie dolls and stuffed animals.

What I’m scared to know is, what’s going on in Mr.’s head? As if the giant heads weren’t strange enough, more than one of his paintings are sexually charged portraits of naked adolescents. The press release cushioned the Japanese artist’s work in cultural context:

The Otaku subculture emerged in Japan in the 1970s and consisted mostly of males who were consumed by manga comics, anime animation, sci-fi literature and video games. Mr.’s large-eyed characters and flat color fields are influenced by this movement and its Lolita-esque fascination with adolescents. The cheerful boys with their pants down and girls in short skirts appear sexually provocative, asking the viewer to question whether the work is a comment on Otaku culture or an exploration of Mr.’s fantasy world.

Still, it’s very uncomfortable perhaps because it flirts with the sexuality of such young characters but is most likely to be bought by middle-aged white men with Asian fetishes.

This is Mr.’s first solo work in New York. His work is both skillful and thought-provoking, so keep an eye on this artist. It’s likely you’ll be hearing more of him in the future.

The work will be on display at Lehmann Maupin Gallery (540 West 26th Street, NYC) until June 23. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM till 6 PM. You can preview the artwork and watch a video of the installation process here.

[Photo from Lehmann Maupin Gallery.]