Traditionally, the classical approach to painting has always been intended for narrative: heroes, saints, and the divine were painted in their glorious feats of battle or miraculous miracles. But the task of storytelling has since been ceded literature and film. Japanese contemporary artist Tokuhiro Kawai uses his mastery of oil painting to rekindle this fragile bond, but in a contemporary context in which religion and epic battles are less a part of our lives. “Human beings live their life carrying this kind of contradiction or unanswerable problems. By creating an original hero, I want to pursue the amusing trait of mankind who exists with the desire to battle, and yet have contradictory behaviors,” says Kawai.