Lurie has worked as a musician, an actor, and a director for many years, but he also been active as a painter since 1970s. Even though he had been painting a lot of works while he was already known for the Lounge Lizards and the movies in the 1980s, his painting work was never made public. When he became sick and faced loneliness, he had begun to devote his life to painting. In 2004, with the recommendation from his friend, James Nares, Lurie had his first exhibition at Anton Kern Gallery, New York. Unique combination of colors, oddly simplified characters and salty humorous titles form the world of John Lurie. He expresses that he works in a sort of hypnotic state. He creates a certain combination of colors in his head and puts them down on the support and then starts painting. The characters in his works evoke cartoon characters, mural painting, or African art painting, and are occasionally accompanied by absurdist humor tinged with sexual reference; they often implicitly express provocative, yet humanistic undertone. Titles of artworks usually come about three-quarters of the way through. By combining colors, shapes and titles in surprising and quixotic ways, Lurie creates a personal mythology that blurs distinctions between real experience and the imaginary. Lurie's paintings have combined boldness and sensitivity. They seem to be cut of a passage of a story and fill the viewer's imagination. This exhibition features 20 works on paper created from 1995 to 2008 by John Lurie. *The exhibition also shows a special interview with John Lurie, including video message for the show. * The text was provided by Galerie Sho Contemporary Art.