Milk Feet
Mitsu Okubo
7.11.2026 - 8.28.2026
”what’s behind these paintings?” I asked casually, trying to catch Mitsu Okubo off guard while he installed the canvases that I was seeing for the first time. Without a hint of humor, he spun the one he was holding around and said “You mean…on the backs?” I was sitting on the floor and flopped over laughing. Catching on to my proper meaning he replied “Oh, crippling anxiety and the need to pass it on”
All of the works depict figures just barely confined to the canvas, often pushing against the edges of the rectangle as if being crushed. They feel like they’re in various stages of motion, mutation, or mutilation. Grotesque in the classic sense of hybridity or metamorphosis, the depictions provoke sympathy and concern nearly as much as disgust. A close student of horror films, Okubo understands that creating a relatable monster is both more difficult and ultimately more successful than just manufacturing the most extreme one. Everyone has an anxiety they can find inside these paintings.
Mitsu Okubo is a San Francisco based artist known for his irreverence and embrace of the grotesque. He’s a founding member of the studio collective The Basement and co-curated our wildly popular Bootleg t-shirt show earlier this year alongside Luca Antonucci. This is Mitsu’s second solo show with Bass & Reiner following 2021’s 97 Drawings which nearly led to our eviction from Minnesota Street Project due to its vulgarity.