FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

“Hi-Point Contact” Michiko Itatani Retrospective
Zhou B Art Center, Chicago
October 17 to December 30, 2016

Opening Reception: Friday, October 21, 2016, 7-10pm

Artist talk with Jason Foumberg and Book Signing: Friday, November 18, 2016, 7:30-8:30 pm

“Hi-Point Contact” is an engineering term describing a momentary touching of two elements.  I expanded it’s meaning and made a series of works under this title in the 1990’s.  It was a section of my on-going questions about human existence in the larger context of the universe.  I have been examining the human condition from different angles: from inside and from outside.  The appearance of my work has been changing based on the particular focus, but my basic concerns have been consistent, always personal and humanistic.

In these compositions, using a fictional and symbolic space, in which I condense experienced and imagined multi-layered events, I am examining the connections between the body and the cosmos, flesh and technology, person and person, individual and State, group and group, nation and nation, desire and choice, taboo and obsession, and so on.  “Hi-Point Contact” is my fiction writing: incomplete, fragmented and under inquiry.  – Michiko Itatani

The Zhou B Art Center is honored to celebrate it’s 12th year anniversary with “Hi-Point Contact,” a retrospective by Michiko Itatani. The exhibition consists of 23 works created between 1976 and the present. This long awaited retrospective provides a glimpse into the inquiring mind of the artist whose respected trajectory continues to reinvent itself and surprise us with engaging new works. In this exhibition, Itatani’s world intersects with our own at every wall. Her dynamic compositions, sophisticated textures, luminous spaces and fragmented structures invite us to accept an unraveling universe right before our eyes. “High Point Contact” celebrates Itatani’s career and legacy in Chicago and abroad.

This remarkable exhibition will be the second segment of an ongoing exhibition and partnership with Linda Warren Projects. The first segment titled Starry Night Encounter will be on view at Linda Warren Gallery September 9, 2016 – October 22, 2016. Accompanying both exhibitions will be individual catalogs, featuring essays by Jason Foumberg. An artist talk with Jason Foumberg and book signing will take place on Friday, November 18, 2016 from 7:30-8:30 pm at the Zhou B Art Center.

Michiko Itatani was born in Kobe, Japan, and received her MFA in 1976 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she is currently a Professor. Itatani has shown widely around the globe, and her work can be found in such prestigious collections as the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain; and Tokoha Museum, Shizuoka, Japan. Itatani has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Union League Club of Chicago’s “Distinguished Artists” Membership Award, and a National Endowment for Art, Artist’s Fellowship amongst many others. Itatani is represented by Linda Warren Projects.

Zhou B Art Center
1029 W. 35th St.
Chicago, IL 60609
773-523-0200

Gallery hours: Monday to Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm
Curator: Sergio Gomez

www.zhoubartcenter.com