michiko itatani

at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art2004 Baltimore AvenueKansas City, MO 64111

816.221.2626www.sherryleedy.com

September 4 - October 24, 2015

In Michiko Itatani’s current exhibition, Cosmic Wanderlust II, she has created a world of dreams. Painted in miniature, the visual poetry of her imagination invites the viewer into enchanted spaces. Radiant chandeliers light an opulent theater. A library holds glowing planets as globes. A magical moonlit landscape seems inhabited by fairies or ghosts.

Itatani often describes her painting process in terms of writing, composing each phrase, paragraph, and chapter. Over the course of her career she has become a painter who writes paintings and a writer who paints novels. She has been called a world traveler informed by her experiences in transit. Cosmic Wanderlust II celebrates the complexity, beauty and creativity that are our better nature.

Originally from Japan, Itatani now calls Chicago home and has been a professor of painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 1979. She has received many prestigious awards including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship among many others. Her work is held in the public collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; American Embassy Permanent Collection, Brasilia, Brazil; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea, Museum D’art Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain and numerous others.

C o s m i c W a n d e r l u s t I I

Cosmic Wanderlust from Shoin (Study) 10-K-12Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board5” x 5”2010 3.

Tree House Encounter from Cosmic Theater 14- K-15 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

8” x 8”20144.

Cosmic Wanderlust from Personal Codes 12-K-12Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board8” x 8”2012

5.

Starry Night from CTRL-Home/Echo 11-K-5Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

5” x 5”2011

6.

Red Planet from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-33Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board5” x 5”2015 7.

Book of Fixed Stars from Encounter 15-K-02Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

6” x 6”20158.

9.

Personal Codes from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-30Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board5” x 5”2015

Harmonic Oscilator from COsmic Encounter 15-K-16Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

5” x 5”2010

10.

Personal Codes from Waiting Game/Echo 13-K-15Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

5” x 5”2013

Angular Momentum from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-06Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

5” x 5”2015

11.

Piano Room from Cosmic Theater 14-K-19Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board5” x 5”2014

12.

Tree House Encounter from Cosmic Theater 14-K-11 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

6” x 6”2014

13.

Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 13-K-23Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board8” x 8”2013

14.

Starry Night from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-24Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

6” x 6”2015

15.

Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 09-K-19Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board8” x 8”2009

16.

Encounter from Cosmic Theater 10-K-37Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

6” x 6”2010

17.

Ascending Order from HyperBaroque 14-K-3Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board6” x 6”2014

18.

Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 13-K-9Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

6” x 6”2013

19.

Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 15-K-19Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board8” x 8”2013

20.

Encounter from Cosmic Theater 10-K-36Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

6” x 6”2010

21.

Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 09-K-28Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board6” x 6”2009

22.

Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 09-K-33Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

8” x 8”2009

23.

Encounter from Cosmic Theater 10-K-34Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board8” x 8”2010

24.

Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 13-K-44Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board

5” x 5”2013