Enchantment

Opening

Arsenal Toronto is proud to present Enchantment, the first international solo exhibition by Greg Ito presenting paintings, sculpture, and installation that explores the state of lucid dreaming where daily life collapses into fantasy, nightmare, hope, failure, and the unforseen future. Through Ito’s multidisciplinary studio practice, experiences are tailored to manifest spaces where images and objects live together creating playful and haunting narratives for his audience to explore. The artist’s paintings are crisply rendered using a lexicon of symbols and imagery such as burning candles, key holes, windows, snakes, the Sun and Moon. 

Mining his family’s history of forced relocation into concentration camps during World War II, Ito uses his signature compositions that aim to provoke emotional tensions. During their internment at Gila River Relocation Camp in Arizona, Ito’s grandparents’ romance blossomed, finding light during dark days. It is this emotional tension that Ito explores in his work. Ito’s sculpture practice stems from his paintings where symbols are pulled from the compositions into the space. Through a combination of hand fabrication and altered readymades Ito further explores the narratives in his paintings. Enchantment ties everything together using various treatments with light, paint, carpet, and constructions as Ito transforms Arsenal Toronto into a surreal dream where magic still exists to create space to see the world we live in through a new lens.

Greg Ito (1987) born Los Angeles, California, received his BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2008. Recent solo-exhibitions include: Hallowed Ground at Art Cube (Los Angeles), Lullabye at Andrew Rafacz Gallery (Chicago), Soothesayer Steve Turner (Los Angeles). Group exhibitions include: Jeffrey Deitch (New York), Shulamit Nazarian (Los Angeles), Romer Young, (San Francisco), 315 Gallery, (Brooklyn), MON CHÉRI (Brussels).