Last Saturday, Century Guild unveiled Stephanie Inagaki’s first major solo offering, “Metamorphosis”. The gallery is filled with historical furniture and paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries. Among these, you will find Stephanie Inagaki’s work. Inagaki is a reflection of her art and greeted visitors in an intricate black headdress of her own design. While her new paintings can be appreciated from a historical context, it’s her use of modern motifs that stands out.
Each piece mixes traditional Japanese designs with abstract compositions that surround a female form, representing the artist. Four small drawings utilize color and bold textiles, each portraying a hybrid animal-goddess lying in a fetal position. At this stage of growth, they are all equals; a creature as violent as a harpy is no different from a romantic faun. On the opposite wall, the work is larger and more surreal as psychological themes are explored in black and white drawings with a single color, red, gold, or blue. One doesn’t need to know about mythology to understand Inagaki’s show because her work tells its own story. By painting herself this way, she describes the trials of her own self discovery from birth into a beautiful, young woman.
Stephanie Inagaki’s “Metamorphosis” will be on view through May 3 at Century Guild in Culver City, CA. 
