Yumi Kondo has an instantly recognisable and idiosyncratically expressive style of painting. Kondo uses exaggeration, distortion and dis-proportion in a way that draws on cartoons, caricature and the manga comics of her native Japan.

Flat, intensely coloured backdrops, often incorporating simple repeated motifs, dancing patterns or even the chi-chi fizz of sequins, Kondo’s paintings are delightful.

More than just kooky or kitsch, Kondo’s search for ‘something more real than the real’ in her work taps into the complexities of female beauty, the artifice and disguise involved in the projection of a persona.