O'Connor Art Gallery hosts "Cosmic Commentaries" at Dominican University

Dominican University’s O’Connor Art Gallery will host Cosmic Commentaries, an exhibit featuring the art of Michiko Itatani and Cullen Washington Jr., from November 2 to December 14, 2011. The exhibit will open with an artist’s talk with Itatani on Wednesday, November 2 at 3:00 p.m. followed by a reception from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Cosmic Commentaries showcases each artist’s narratives around the theme of space.

A professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Itatani envisions her painting process as similar to that of writing a novel. After researching subjects, she creates a series of works, each paralleling a chapter of a novel. Using fictional and symbolic spaces, the chapters are reorganized and re-imagined into multi-layered events.

Itatani’s work has been seen in more than 100 solo and group exhibitions across the globe since 1973. Her works are held in numerous global collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art; Harold Washington Library; Musèe du Quebec, Canada; Olympic Museum, Switzerland and the National Museum of Art, Korea. She has received Fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts and the John S. Guggenheim Foundation.

Washington’s artistic viewpoint seeks to relate his cultural identity within a universal context. Using a restricted black and white pallet, he uses blackness as a metaphor to signify both the depths of the universe and the symbolic representation of actual objects.  Basketball hoops are transformed into black holes, catfish nets become alien motherships and wood paneling morphs into nebula. He currently teaches at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University.

After eight years of working as a graphic designer, Washington attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. After graduating in 2009, he received the Joan Mitchell National Grant for Painting and Drawing and began a residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has exhibited at the Museum of the National Center of African American Artists and is one of 23 artists in the DeCordova Biennial, highlighting the finest art of New England.

The O’Connor Art Gallery is located on the fourth floor of Lewis Hall on Dominican’s Main Campus, 7900 Division Street, River Forest. Exhibits, panels and receptions are free and open to the public. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For more information, contact Angela Bryant at abryant@dom.edu.