Misako Inaoka

 First Time Art Party Participant

The Bear

Artist’s Website

www.misakoinaoka.com

Artist’s Statement

My interests arise from the delicate boundaries that exist between the natural and the artificial. By closely observing the physical and social environment around me, I find hidden beauty and peculiarity, such as a cell towers posing as a pine tree, a flock of non-native birds, coyotes thriving in urban parks, hybrid species thriving in nature, tree branches growing through wire fence, or moss growing in a crack of cement sidewalk. I emphasize these subtle details and exaggerate their illogicality to cultivate my own version of invented creatures and landscapes.

In our society the boundaries between what is artificial and natural, what is manipulating and manipulated, become obscured. By inventing new hybrid species and landscapes, I am exploring the co-existence of natural and artificial forms.

About the Artist

Misako Inaoka, born in Kyoto JAPAN, has studied art in the United States, receiving a BFA from RISD (2001) and an MFA from Mills College (2006). Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the U.S., Europe, China and Japan, where she is based now. She is a recipient of several grants/awards and residencies such as Montalvo Residency (Irvine Fellowship), S & R Foundation (Washington Awards), Headlands Center of the Art residency, MacDowell Colony (National Endowment of the Arts) and de Young Museum residency.

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.