Tiny Battles by Andrew K. Currey & Within the Shadows by Stephanie Inagaki

About

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.

Tiny Battles by Andrew K. Currey, explores our understanding of vulnerability, its display, concealment, and acceptance on a cultural level through intricate graphite drawings. This new series depicts small battle scenes and conflicts that illustrate an elaborate, theatrical dramatization of daily struggles and internal anxieties. The works themselves are made large enough for the viewer to wrap their arms around to drive home the message that internal conflict should not be feared, but rather revered.  Ornate golden halos and stars serve as a resting place of reverence and disrupt the monochromatic cacophony giving viewers a small place to nod or bow to their own internal struggles.

For ages, folklore and mythology have been used to explore the human experience through the lens of the fantastical.  Stephanie Inagaki’s new drawings presented in Within the Shadows utilize 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.

Andrew K. Currey received his Bachelors in Fine Arts at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. He studied classical art restoration at the Lorenzo D’Medici School in Florence, Italy and later went to Otis College of Art and Design, where he earned his Masters in Fine Arts. In 2014 he was the Artist-In-Residence of Shankill Castle in Paulstown, Ireland. Andrew is currently a Teaching Artist at Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, and Professor Adjunct to the Animation department at Woodbury University in Burbank, California.