In Guided Growth, Misako Inaoka revamps Johansson Projects into a zoological garden run wild, existing in a strange parallel world that we are perhaps too familiar with. Inaoka’s work echoes the alchemy of food processing by cross-breeding high art and toys, flirting with the familiarity of kitsch. Fawns with surveillance cameras for heads and a moose with ears-turned-bicycle-handlebars frolic in a wonderland impossibly sweet with an unsettling aftertaste. Inaoka’s serious play addresses issues of cloning, bioengineering, alternative energy in pint-sized figurines suited for text books or toy chests.

Inaoka, born in Kyoto, Japan, received her BFA in printmaking ’01 from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), and her MFA ’06 from Mills College, CA. From 1999-2000, Inaoka spent a year in Rome, Italy, as a part of EHP (European Honors Program). She works with mixed media in sculpture and site-specific installation. Her work has been shown at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, de Young Museum, de Saisset Museum, San Jose ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), as well as galleries in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Texas, Japan, England, China and Italy. She is a recipient of the Irvine Fellowship for Montalvo residency, National Endowment of Arts for MacDowell Colony residency, and has been an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Art, de Young Museum, and Vermont Studio Center.