Dan Grayber isolates machinery from its usual role of fulfilling human needs through placing it in an eternal mode of self-perpetuation. His safety-orange powder coated objects endlessly assure their survival through completing the simple and essential task of holding oneself up. These sculptures, which create problems as they solve them, exude a sovereign elegance, the dignity of not having to justify themselves to an outside source. Alex Case uses asphalt as a medium in his mountainscapes, channeling the crude radiance of the oil refineries of his hometown and exploring the difference between exploiting a material and giving it life. The mix of untouched natural form and artificial asphalt speaks to the conglomerate landscape of the modern age. The lack of a human subject in both artists’ work allows for the emergence of an ethic by machines for machines, as well as an inherently formidable aesthetic. <br />
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Show runs January 20 – March 5, 2011<br />
Opening Reception: February 4, 2011; 5-8pm<img src="http://rhizome.org/syndicate/nothing.gif?f=announce" border="0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhizome-announce/~4/JDKO0MBdt40" height="1" width="1"/>

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. <br />
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Inaoka, born in Kyoto, Japan, had received BFA in printmaking ’01 from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), and 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, and Texas, in Japan, England, China and Italy. She is a recipient of 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. <br />
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Closing Reception: November 5, 5-9pm<img src="http://rhizome.org/syndicate/nothing.gif?f=announce" border="0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhizome-announce/~4/ZntIYult1xA" height="1" width="1"/>

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. Ceramic 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.<br />
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Inaoka, born in Kyoto, Japan, had received BFA in printmaking ’01 from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), and 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, and Texas, in Japan, England, China and Italy. She is a recipient of 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.<br />
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Show runs September 17- November 6<br />
Opening Reception October 1, 5-8pm<img src="http://rhizome.org/syndicate/nothing.gif?f=announce" border="0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhizome-announce/~4/f9orXmh2ufo" height="1" width="1"/>