Japanese artist Michiko Itatani offers 2012-13 Eric Yake Kenagy Visiting Artist lecture
Eric Yake Kenagy Visiting Artist Lecture and Exhibit:“Cosmic Wanderlust” by Michiko Itatani
Lecture date, time and location: Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. in Goshen College Administration Building Room 28
Exhibit reception: Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. in the Goshen College Music Center’s Hershberger Art Gallery. The exhibit will be on display from Nov. 7 to Jan. 13, 2013.
Cost: Free and open to the public
Born in Japan, artist Michiko Itatani lives and works in Chicago as a professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the Goshen College Art Department’s 2012 Eric Yake Kenagy Visiting Artist and will offer a public lecture, “Cosmic Wanderlust,” in the Administration Building Room 28 on Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m., with a reception following in the Music Center’s Hershberger Art Gallery. The exhibit will be on display from Nov. 7 to Jan. 13, 2013. The presentation and exhibit are free and open to the public.
Itatani’s process of art-making starts with gathering various fragments from experiences, events, documents, literature, history, science, myths and customs. These fragments are then cataloged and mutated to make images. It is an act of fusing research, observation, memory and imagination. Her exhibit features small scale, beautifully painted views of Baroque interiors with cosmic elements.
In Itatani’s lecture and exhibit, she will explore “the human desire to reach out into the mental and physical space beyond our grasp,” she writes. “Through this process, I am trying to come to terms with the complex reality of the 21st century. And my vision stays pathetically optimistic.”
by Michiko Itatani in 2010
oil on canvas
(image provided)
Itatani has been a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 1979. Her solo exhibitions include: University of Wyoming Art Museum; Tokoha Museum, Japan; Chicago Cultural Center; Musee du Quebec, Canada; Alternative Museum, NY. Her work has appeared in Art in America, Art on Paper, Artnews, Artforum, Dialogue and Artweek. Her work has been collected internationally, including in the: Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; University of Western Ontario, Canada; Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona; Olympic Museum, Switzerland; Villa-Haiss-Museum, Germany; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea. Her awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship, NEA Fellowship and Illinois Arts Council Fellowship.
Itatani is the 26th Eric Yake Kenagy Visiting Artist Program speaker (view a list of past speakers). The program honors the late Eric Yake Kenagy, who was a gifted ceramics student at Goshen College from 1984 until his death in 1986.