Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

SELECTED INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS (*catalog)
 
2018 – Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA (postponed)
2018 – “Shadows of the Mind,” Linda Warren Projects, Chicago, IL
2017 – “Michiko Itatani, Celestial Narratives,” Hatheway Cultural Center, Godfrey, IL
2017 – “Michiko Itatani, Celestial Visions,” Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL
2016 – “Hi-Point Contact,” Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL* (10/17/16 to 12/30/16)
2016 – “Starry Night Encounter,” Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago, IL* (9/9/16 to 10/22/16)
2015 – “Cosmic Wanderlust II,” Sherry Leedy Contemporary, Kansas City, MO* (9/1/16 to 10/24/16)
2015 – “Personal Codes III,” Bradley University Heuser Art Gallery, Peoria, IL
2014 – “Itatani & Borgenicht,” Sherry Leedy Contemporary, Kansas City, MO
2014 – “Michiko Itatani and Jake Webster: Passages,” South Bent Museum of Art, IN*
2013 – “Cosmic Kaleidoscope,” Linda Warren Projects, Chicago, IL*
2012 – “CTRL-Home/Echo,” Printworks, Inc., Chicago, IL
2011 – “Visual Analogies and Inquiries: the Work of Michiko Itatani and Birgitta Weimer,” Milwaukee Institute of Arts & Design, Milwaukee, WI
2011 – “Cosmic Theater,” Kendall Gallery, Ferris University, Grand Rapids, MI
2010 – “Personal Codes,” Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, NY*
2010 – “Close Binary,” RedLine, Denver, CO
2010 – “Cosmic Wanderlust,” Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloominton IL
2010 – “Personal Codes,” Walsh Gallery, Chicago, IL*
2010 – “Cosmic Wanderlust,” Corbett vs Dempsey, Chicago, IL
2009 – “Cosmic Theater,” Gaddis Geeslin Gallery, Sam Houston University, TX
2008 – “Cosmic Theater II,” Flatfile Galleries, Chicago, IL
2007 – “Close Binary,” Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY
2006 – “Writing-Moon/Flesh Studies & related works,” Shirley/Jones Gallery, Yellowsprings, OH
2005 – “Virtual Signs/Witness,” H.F. Johnson Gallery, Carthage College, Kenosha, WI*
2004 – Sherry Leedy Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2003 – “Infinite Remnant,” Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO*
2002 – “Contemplative Inquiry,” University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, WY*
2001 – Galerie Bhak, Seoul, Korea
2001 – Fassbender Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 – “Tangent Space,” Frauen Museum, Bonn, Germany*
1999 – Elmhurst Museum, Elmhurst, Illinois
1998 – “Fragments of Change,” Tokoha Museum, Shizuoka, Japan*
1998 – Indianapolis Art Center, Indianapolis, IN
1996 – “Hypercharge,” Shinjuku Park Tower, Tokyo, Japan*
1994 – “Ed Paschke/Michiko Itatani,” Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, WI*
1992 – Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI*
1988 – Musée du Quebec, Quebec City, Canada
1985 – Alternative Museum, New York City, NY*

SELECTED GRANTS/FELLOWSHIPS/AWARDS

John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
Union League Club, “Distinguished Artists” Membership Award
Marie Walsh Sharp Foundation, New York City Studio Space Grant
National Endowment for Art, Artist’s Fellowship

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland
McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
American Embassy Permanent Collection, Brasilia, Brazil
Museu D’art Contemporani (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain
Villa-Haiss-Museum, Zell am Harmersback, Germany
Frauen Museum, Bonn, Germany
Musée du Quebec, Quebec, Canada
Tokoha Museum, Shizuoka, Japan
Hyogo Art Museum, Kobe, Japan
Shizuoka University of Art & Culture, Shizuoka, Japan
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL
Koehnline Museum of Art, Des Plaines, IL
Loyola Museum of Art, Chicago IL
DePaul Museum of Art, Chicago, IL
Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL
Harold Washington Library, Chicago, IL
Mary & Leigh Block Museum, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, IN
Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI
Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, MI
Daum Museum, Sedalia, MO
Wright Museum, Beloit, WI
Cincinnati Art Museum, OH
Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
University of Colorado Art Galleries, Boulder, CO
Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA
Maier Museum of Art, Charlottesville, VA

“Consciousness” has been intriguing me for a long time. I have been reading various ideas about the conscious mind in medicine, psychology, technology, philosophy and religion. What does “consciousness” mean in the history of the universe/multiverse?

Human consciousness has been defined as awareness, sentience, a person’s ability to experience and feel, but despite the important role it plays in our lives and making us who we are, we actually know very little about how consciousness works. Roger Penrose discusses in detail the non-computability of conscious thought in “Shadows of the Mind”. Rapid development in Artificial Superintelligence makes the definition of “consciousness” more complicated.

A ring of lights has been appearing in my paintings for some time. Viewers of my paintings are associating my ring to different things: halo, fairy ring of mushrooms, view of an aurora from outer space, circular chandeliers in a cathedral, a growth ring (tree), a ring system (planet), etc. They are all relevant. However, for me, a ring of lights specifically symbolizes the presence of the conscious mind.

In my work, I use a fictional and symbolic space and I condense experienced and imagined multi-layered events. In the space I create, the conscious mind experiences an encounter with a person, a creature, a tree, a flower, a rock, a room, a book, a song, a painting, a life, a planet or the cosmos.

In my youth, I wanted to pursue writing fiction. I still strongly believe in fiction’s ability to express the deepest truths. In these painting compositions, I use libraries, museums, public spaces, performance halls and lands, all intermingled with images of the cosmos. It’s my fiction writing: incomplete, fragmented and under inquiry. That’s my cosmic theater.

Through this working process, I am trying to come to terms with the complex reality of the 21st Century. And my vision stays incorrigibly optimistic.

Michiko Itatani 2018