I came across an interesting Japanese artist, Kohei Nawa. He works with toys, stuffed animals and other found objects (which he often buys on eBAY), covering them in crystal balls to create a concave/convex effect that alternatingly magnifies and minimizes the surface beneath them.  These optical illusions, I'm sure, serve for a trippy visit to a Kohei Nawa installation.  Childish and intelligent in much the same vein as Murakami's cartoonish art, Nawa's work is just as captivating in its novel use of toys and presenting tiny alternatre realities. Kohei Nawa. PixCell.Toy-Mario #2, 2007Kohei Nawa. PixCell-Elk (detail), 2009