Michiko Itatani: Celestial Stage

Itatani’s oversized paintings—often seven-by-eight feet or even larger—burst with an energy created by densely placed images, which serve as symbols of humanity’s eternal search for knowledge. Many of the painting depict “stages” where science and culture come improbably together: baroque bookcases with rockets, grand pianos and Japanese tea rooms, harps alongside helical staircases, and atomic models of electrons charging around nuclei. The effect is of an artist’s joyous exuberance and her wonder and awe at the world and beyond.

Michiko Itatani is Professor Emeritus at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), where she has taught for 40 years. She was born and educated in Osaka, Japan, where from an early age she was fascinated by the patterns and structures of science, learned traditional brush painting, and published poetry. She came to the U.S. in her early 20s, earning BFA and MFA degrees from the AIC (1974, 1976). Her work is represented in the permanent collections of public museums around the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), Spain; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea; Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland; and the U.S. Embassy Brasilia, Brazil, among many others.

Ashley Janke is the curator of Michiko Itatani: Celestial Stage and the Assistant Curator at Wrightwood 659. She has worked on the organization of exhibitions including Yannis Tsarouchis: Dancing in Real Life, Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works of Sullivan & Wright, Rirkrit Tiravanija: (who’s afraid of red, yellow, and green), American Framing, and Moga: Modern Women & Daughters in 1930s Japan. Outside of Wrightwood 659, Janke has organized curatorial projects with national and international institutions, including Cubitt Gallery (London), ICA (London), Azkuna Zentroa (Bilbao), and the Lynden Sculpture Garden (Milwaukee), among others. Janke holds a Master’s degree in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London (2018). She is a Director of Adds Donna, an artist-run exhibition space in Chicago.