Cosmic Wanderlust II
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.
Cosmic Wanderlust from Shoin (Study) 10-K-12
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
5” x 5”
Tree House Encounter from Cosmic Theater 14- K-15 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
8” x 8”
Wanderlust from Personal Codes 12-K-12
Cosmic
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 8” x 8”
Red Planet from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-33
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
5” x 5”
Book of Fixed Stars from Encounter 15-K-02
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
6” x 6”
Codes from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-30
Personal
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
5” x 5”
Harmonic Oscilator from COsmic Encounter 15-K-16
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
5” x 5”
Codes from Waiting Game/Echo 13-K-15
Momentum from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-06
Personal
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
5” x 5”
Angular
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
5” x 5”
Piano Room from Cosmic Theater 14-K-19
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
5” x 5”
Tree House Encounter from Cosmic Theater 14-K-11 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
6” x 6”
Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 13-K-23
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
8” x 8”
Starry Night from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-24 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
6” x 6”
Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 09-K-19
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
8” x 8”
Encounter from Cosmic Theater 10-K-37
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
6” x 6”
Ascending Order from HyperBaroque 14-K-3
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
6” x 6”
Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 13-K-9 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
6” x 6”
Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 15-K-19
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
8” x 8”
Encounter from Cosmic Theater 10-K-36
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
6” x 6”
Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 09-K-28
Cosmic
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
6” x 6”
Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 09-K-33 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
8” x 8”
Encounter from Cosmic Theater 10-K-34
Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
8” x 8”
Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 13-K-44 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board
5” x 5”
