Darren Jones on Michiko Itatani
Artforum
March 2024
Michiko Itatani’s exhibition here, “Cosmic Encounters,” presented ten large-scale oil paintings, completed between 2006 and 2023, featuring imagery the Japanese-born and longtime Chicago-based artist is known for, including majestic amphitheaters beneath nighttime skies, and richly decorated interiors of libraries, cathedrals, and concert halls. At the center of these spaces, positioned high up, were rings of luminescent orbs and chandeliers that had similar multicolored disks cascading from them. In most instances, an array of globes were placed around the rooms’ perimeters or encircle star charts laid into the floors. Architectural details—such as arches and Escher-like staircases, rendered with exaggerated perspectives—tempted the viewer to peer more deeply into the many recesses and passageways of these enigmatic scenes.
If there is a throughline in Itatani’s work, it’s in the way she regards curiosity and knowledge with a deep sense of sacredness. We see it in the countless pictures of books, obscure instruments, and diagrams that line her open-air observatories; the cultural and holy institutions she invites us into; and the dynamic possibilities she asks us to consider within this mysterious ungovernable existence. That the artist can foster a sense of calm and meditative contemplation within these vast and labyrinthine contexts testifies to the capaciousness of the artist’s own restless, generous, and inquisitive imagination. – Darren Jones