Hataya

Based in Saitama, Japan, the artist working under the pseudonym Hataya (ハタ屋) has opened a window onto a unique and richly imagined world. Working in a meticulous pen and ink style, Hataya reveals a wild menagerie of beasts and beings, including many-eyed and many-legged cat-people, bird-faced dragons, preening moth-scholars, and floating creatures beyond description. These hybrid beings inhabit detailed backgrounds full of antique architectural details, paper lanterns, tattered posters, and mysterious goods in jars, creating a believable, lived-in setting that lends tangible presence to the diverse creatures. The work possesses great narrative allure, with each piece leaving the viewer wanting more. Hataya maintains there is no one story she is trying to tell, yet describes one big world in her mind that she is drawing, which allows the work to feel coherent. She draws what she wants to see.