NEW YORK, NY.- JanKossen Contemporary is presenting ITOMARISM:Kaleidoscope, the premiere solo show in the United States by Japanese contemporary artist Mari Ito. The exhibition is held in New York through Dec. 1st 2018.

Mari Ito (Tokyo, 1980, lives in Barcelona SPAIN), studied traditional Japanese painting at Joshibi University of Art and Design in Tokyo. Mari Ito’s oeuvre is based and influenced by the philosophical approaches found in Animism, Anthropocene and Animalism.

Animism finds its expression in long standing Japanese techniques where all objects, places and creatures are seen to have a spiritual existence, and are hence animated and alive. Ito’s work shows us her world that is post-human existence: when we are no longer an influential force on the environment. Her organic, alien plants affected by a nuclear disaster thrive and grow, despite humanity’s absence (or because of it).

Ito’s new work is a continuation her series entitled “The origin of Desire”, where the artist invites us to reflect on the origins of our needs; that is our most irrational and personal impulses. The Id or "das Es" (as Sigmund Freud would say) split off from the ego and the superego is the psychic - therefore the purest and most primitive expression of our drives and aspirations. The essence of what makes us “alive”.

Completely opposed forces that actually complement and react to one another are interpreted by Ito in the same way, for they have the same value and form a duality that exists in natural harmony. The Romantics pioneered the concept of the sublime, of humanity needing to succumb to the awesome force of nature, normally shown with a small figure or a person with their back turned towards the viewer, engulfed by their environment. Ito has completely excluded the figure, leaving only a representation of our base desires through personified flora.

Ito's delicately formed creations come to life as they unfold into themselves, permanently striving to make their way towards awareness in their on-going search for the root of desire; whatever its nature.