Greg Ito: 'All You Can Carry'

"All You Can Carry" is a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Greg Ito.

In this exhibition, Ito draws on his Japanese-American ancestry and his family's experience with Japanese American incarceration during WWII, specifically centered on the objects in family homes. When FDR signed Executive Order 9066 in 1942, families were sent to "internment camps" in California with only what they could carry with them, and many families, including Ito's, had to leave behind everything except the most important things.

In his paintings, Ito uses symbols as a form of code to draw on those objects, and other memories. Also on view is a large-scale installation piece, a structure of a burnt home. Finally, to both propagate a sense of hope as well as commemorate Ito's grandfather, who worked as a water tower watchman at the incarceration camp, Ito also installed an interactive piece up on the ICA North hill, a short but unpaved hike from the gallery. The installation features charcoal and soil that visitors can plant California native wildflower seeds in, to be watered only by what Ito can carry in his hands up the hill.

The installation will be on view Mar. 12 through May 15, 2022, with an opening reception and performative wildflower seed installation Mar. 12. from 5:30-8:30 p.m.
—Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS

Opening reception:
Saturday, Mar. 12, 2022 at ICA North
5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
5:30 p.m.: Reception featuring music by DJ Omega Watts
6:30 p.m.: Artist Talk followed by a Q&A
Free

About the artist:
Greg Ito (b. 1987, Los Angeles, CA) earned his BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2008. His work has been exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions at galleries including Maki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA; Division Gallery, Montreal, QC; Arsenal Contemporary, Toronto, ON; Jeffrey Deitch New York, NY; Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; Et al, San Francisco, CA; and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts – YBCA, San Francisco, CA. A forthcoming solo exhibition at the new Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego will open in 2022. Ito lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

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