Miyoko Ito at MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY

[Music] oh thank you thank [Music] [Music] you now [Music] [Music] hey welcome back viewers it's I James Comm your halfast reporter the guy in the bike and we are in Chelsea we're going to run in here to Matthew Marks and look at an exhibition by myoko deto stay tuned we'll uh make our cursory sweep of of the [Music] exhibition [Music] let's start here it's titled first verenda 1983 oil on canvas well I was not familiar with mioko ID's work and uh I was peeking through the window here a couple of weeks ago and just thought this looked Exquisite this is oil on canvas 26x 20 in and it's been getting a lot of press this is untitle 1975 oil on canvas 60 by 68 mioko ETO 1918 to 1983 was born in Berkeley California to parents of Japanese descent in 1942 a month before graduating from the University of California Berkeley she and her husband were sent to tan foran and interment camp south of San Francisco under the executive order signed by Franklin Roosevelt following year heo was allowed to leave the camp and attend a graduate program at Smith college in Northampton Massachusetts she moved to Chicago and attended the school of the Art Institute in 1944 where she lived until her death in 1983 okay so uh well I would say that uh one of the things that attracted me to the work is the uh incredibly subtle coloration here this is Untitled 1970 well I'm interested to know that she moved to Chicago cuz I was kind of getting an echo of some of the Chicago imagists maybe not the Harry who people but there were some other interesting painters working in Chicago in the 50s and 60s heart of hearts basking 1973 44 by 31 Mi yoko's got a very uh nice technique uh and also I would draw your attention to the uh interesting way that she is using these tacks on her stretched canvases they saying that a lot of these Works kind of recall Interiors Landscapes but there is no figure uh I would say that it's also interesting that uh her drawing is actually going back towards bare canvas and uh it's just kind of dividing the plains the painted Plains rivers of pediment 48 by 45 well as I was saying yoko's got a very control technique incredible brush work H you know her lines her stripes are very controlled I like the uh the geometric aspect of some of these also I think that uh this puts me in mind of mirandi in that uh mioko is a tonal painter so there's a lot of uh tertiary colors there's a lot of tinted and toned colors there's very little white or the high end of the spectrum very little low end of the spectrum everything is kind of as I used to say in the middle of the keyboard but even within that light close range she gets a wonderful uh sense of contrast I think also her uh use of pattern is interesting e for Lista 1975 48 by 46 well there is a also I think a uh great vocabulary of visual motifs the kind of the framing things that she's using I'm kind of I've seen this Motif and a couple things I wonder what that represents and uh also the uh the colored grades and the gradients the fading from the rusty orange to the ol of green into another kind of salmon pink Untitled number 126 1970 47 by 43 I'm I'm going to read a little bit from the press release mioko Ito began exhibiting her work in the early 1940s during her lifetime her work was included in important group exhibitions like the 1955 Carnegie International oh this goes back to what I was saying Chicago imagist art at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 1972 And The 1975 Whitney by annual she had oneperson exhibitions at the hi Park Art Center in Chicago 1971 and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago in 1980 more recently the breley art museum has had an exhibition for work in 2017 a version of which traveled to artist space New York the following year well the work in this back Gallery is a little darker let's see so let TI Yellow Sea 1959 so this is about 20 years earlier than some of the other work so count is 50 by [Music] 60 okay oh these are great uh yeah there's a lot going on underneath this and it's almost like uh mioko was kind of weaving layers of brush Strokes over the top of other layers then we end up with a nice kind of beautiful pediment quilt okay smile well I can't find the uh title for this one but I would assume that this is also one of the paintings from the 50s and some of these dark colors you would initially think are black but they're not they're dark blue dark brown dark green okay we're going to have to hurry through the rest of this CU it's almost Closing Time act one by the Sea 1955 there is a real uh visceral sense of the the craftsmanship almost the obsessive rhythms of the brush Strokes the tax the whole way that she constructs her paintings [Music] flight into landscape 1960 gosh I would say this is probably about the most gestural of any of the pieces so far and there's almost a uh a sense of a figure maybe com coming out of a still life okay flight into landscape that could be a poetic metaphor we'll look at some of her lithographs oh gosh okay so these are from 1949 1950 you know that's a uh street scene in the city but it's also very abstract the way she's laid that out in the rectangles Jenny's pot shop that makes me think of a stor Davis oh gosh well I just had a couple of young viewers from Korea that recognize my voice okay this is easel and table 1948 so this may be about the oldest painting in the show this is 24x 30 again you know beautiful technique but I'm also getting a little uh Echo maybe a Paul clay okay we're going to run to the last Gallery well we'll finish our tour looking at these two pieces Untitled number 119 45 by 43 well uh yeah the backstory of Miko is pretty interesting and uh I I think that she probably is one of these artists hardworking dedicated worked for years you know totally pure and uh serious but uh for some reason they never got the kind of attention they should have gotten and uh well even having a show at Matthew Mark's 2023 does not really guarantee you that you're going to be breaking through into the big time but I think it's a move in the right direction and uh it's also nice to know that uh mle had somebody that's been around for the last Jee 40 years shepherding the estate taking care of things all of the work looks like it's in pretty good condition so they got some numbers on these so they're obviously hundreds of these and it's just nice to see that uh mokoo is going to be remembered because I think she's got a lot of very positive Wonder wonderful interesting ideas about painting and uh God we're lucky to be able to see these so this has been James Comm reporting on mioko EO here at Matthew Marks you can like this share link it up to all your social media sites talk about it at your next opening and you can leave thoughts ideas comments criticisms reviews and suggestions below as long as you say thank you [Music] [Applause] Kate woo [Applause] Thank you new thousands thank you everybody this is go Allen go I am new thousand you can find him online go Allen Jo NYC

Channel: jameskalm

Views: 10,279

Keywords: James Kalm, Miyoko Ito, New Thousand, Matthew Marks Gallery, painting, drawing, sculpture, Chicago Imagist, Chicago Imagist painting, Allusive Abstraction, Surrealism, Chicago art, contemporary art, New York art

Id: OpRHbuAuFrE

Length: 19min 10sec (1150 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 22 2023