Within The Shadows: Stephanie Inagaki

LAUNCH Gallery is proud to present two solo shows of local Los Angeles artists, Andrew K. Currey and Stephanie Inagaki, who use the figure in conflict, either internally or externally, to illuminate the human condition and suggest certain strategies to coping with issues that enlighten our existence and inspire us to action. 

For ages, folklore and mythology have been used to explore the human experience through the lens of the fantastical.  Stephanie Inagaki’snew drawings presented in Within the Shadowsutilize characters and creatures from these stories as symbols of power and grace in times of love, crisis, loss, and transformation. Like many of these tales, life and death are cyclical and symbiotic: with endings and death, there is always the persistence of hope and life.

 

Within the Shadows is an exploration of the layers of the shadow self and our metaphorical ghosts. Inagaki symbolizes the incorporeal as disembodied or additional hands. She includes events or people that may haunt our thoughts, or aspects of ourselves we internally battle with. With further scrutiny and self-acceptance, these ghosts can dissipate or find closure through compassion and empathy. Through this ongoing journey, we can come to see the veils and masks of our own identities.

 

Stephanie Inagaki received her BFA from the College of Fine Arts at Boston University and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has been annually showing around the country since 2007 and has had solo exhibitions in Culver City at Century Guild, Booth Gallery in NYC, Talon Gallery in Portland, OR, and most recently at Stranger Factory in New Mexico. Publications include interviews in Hi-Fructose and KCET’s ArtBound as well as features in Juxtapoz and Beautiful Bizarre.