According to his blog, Eric Nakamura, co-founder of Giant Robot, is a big baseball fan. He even plays third base for the aptly named Giant Robot softball team. So it's not surprising that the show he's opening at GR/2 this weekend is a celebration of sporty fun by Misaki Kawai.

Illustrations above by Misaki Kawai, courtesy of GR/2.

The artist, who divides her time between New York and Osaka, Japan, is enjoying a year of exhibitions at major institutions strung across the globe from Tokyo to New York, Houston, L.A. and beyond. In a recent solo show at Boston's new Institute of Contemporary Arts, Kawai created a whimsical installation where space and time collide in a surrealistic space community tripped out with hippie commune characteristics.

For her show at GR/2, Kawai's trademark handmade, almost kitschy craft style combines found materials with seemingly endless creativity that gives her irreverently cute characters a new-world kind of savvy. According to a recent interview on tuftsdaily.com, she has taken inspiration from her father, an architect and her mother, who made clothes. Kawai taps into both American and Japanese pop culture, from Hong Kong action movies to comics of all kinds, creating a topsy-turvy world as seen through the eyes of a highly skilled artist.

The GR/2 show opens with a reception for the artist on Saturday, August 18 from 6:30 to 10:00 pm, and continues through September 12. For those in the Houston area, you can see her work in Red Hot, a group show of contemporary Asian art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston that runs through October. In New York, her work will be included in Making A Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York, at Japan Society from October 5 to January 13, 2007.

to the masses, a show curated by Eric Nakamura, will open Saturday, August 25^th at the Scion Installation L.A. Gallery in Culver City. It includes work by Caroline Hwang, Ben Woodward, Feric, Dan-ah Kim, Brian Ralph, Eishi Takaoka, Kohei Yamashita, Olaf Ladousse, and French. Please check the website for details.