September 4 - October 24, 2015
at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art 2004 Baltimore Avenue Kansas City, MO 64111 816.221.2626 www.sherryleedy.com
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” 2010
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Tree House Encounter from Cosmic Theater 14- K-15 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 8” x 8” 2014
Cosmic Wanderlust from Personal Codes 12-K-12 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 8� x 8� 2012
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Starry Night from CTRL-Home/Echo 11-K-5 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 5” x 5” 2011
Red Planet from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-33 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 5” x 5” 2015
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Book of Fixed Stars from Encounter 15-K-02 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 6” x 6” 2015
Personal Codes from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-30 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 5” x 5” 2015
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Harmonic Oscilator from COsmic Encounter 15-K-16 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 5” x 5” 2010
Personal Codes from Waiting Game/Echo 13-K-15 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 5” x 5” 2013
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Angular Momentum from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-06 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 5” x 5” 2015
Piano Room from Cosmic Theater 14-K-19 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 5” x 5” 2014
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Tree House Encounter from Cosmic Theater 14-K-11 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 6” x 6” 2014
Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 13-K-23 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 8” x 8” 2013
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Starry Night from Cosmic Encounter 15-K-24 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 6” x 6” 2015
Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 09-K-19 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 8” x 8” 2009
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Encounter from Cosmic Theater 10-K-37 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 6” x 6” 2010
Ascending Order from HyperBaroque 14-K-3 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 6” x 6” 2014
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Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 13-K-9 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 6” x 6” 2013
Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 15-K-19 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 8” x 8” 2013
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Encounter from Cosmic Theater 10-K-36 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 6” x 6” 2010
Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 09-K-28 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 6” x 6” 2009
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Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 09-K-33 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 8” x 8” 2009
Encounter from Cosmic Theater 10-K-34 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 8” x 8” 2010
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Cosmic Wanderlust from HyperBaroque 13-K-44 Gouache, Ink & Prismacolor on board 5” x 5” 2013