Born 1983 in Okayama, Japan, artist Yuya Hashizume is known for his colourful series of work "eyewater". With over ten years of experience in making illustration art, Yuya is a good observer of people and their everyday life in contemporary society. He captures the hidden emotions of a person and transforms them into colourful and cartooned images. The tear lingering at the eye corner of the figure and the use of vivid colours characterise the portrait works of Yuya. It is a representation of the sadness that everyone intended to hide in the bottom of their heart; even the person may seem to be so perfect and joyful outside.

 eyewater: MUSIC is Yuya's first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. It marks his first time adopting "music" as the theme and taking a real person as the blueprint of his artistic creation, which he depicted Joey Thye, a Hong Kong celebrity and young art collector, as a cartoon figure in his works.

 To Yuya, Fujiko Fujio's "Doraemon" manga series has a profound influence on him since he was a child, which impacted the style and representation of the artist's works fundamentally. The simplicity and smoothness of lines allow viewers to focus on the facial expression of the character and thus sympathise with the sentiment expressed by the artist easily.

 Yuya debuted with the solo exhibition "eyewater" in 2017 and later held his solo exhibitions in various cities in Japan, Thailand and South Korea. His works have quickly gained the attention and resonance from many, which make him one of the most notable emerging young artists in Japan.