Artists’ bold color and dynamic composition capture moments in time

Susan Bland

24 May 2024

A detail of Michiko Itatani's "'Bluelift' painting from Cosmic Theater 23-B-5," 2023, an oil on canvas work of a liminal space that looks like an expansive lobby with sacred geometry and many lit chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. — Michiko Itatani, “Bluelift” painting from Cosmic Theater 23-B-5, 2023; oil on canvas; 84-by-72 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist and Storage.

Using bold color, dynamic composition, and fragments from life’s experiences to preserve moments in time, contemporary artists Erika Ranee and Michiko Itatani explore themes of place, perception, and memory using their own distinct styles and approaches. Experience the artists’captivating works in the Moss Arts Center’s summer exhibitions.

Ranee’s “How Are Things on My End” and Itatani’s “Cosmic Encounters” open on Thursday, June 6, with a reception from 5-7 p.m. in the center’s Grand Lobby. Moss Arts Center Curator Brian Holcombe will lead a tour of the exhibitions at 6 p.m. The galleries and all related events are free and open to the public.

“Erika and Michiko use color on an immersive scale to bring viewers into their worlds,” said Holcombe. “Both push the plastic qualities of paint and application, whether squeezing thick paint lines through a syringe to break the picture plane or embedding flora and studio detritus into thick applications of shellac and acrylic to expand their palette. Each artist builds a color-saturated world of human experiences and emotional memory through materiality and an absence of figuration.”

Erika Ranee

“How Are Things on My End”

Miles C. Horton Jr. Gallery and Sherwood Payne Quillen '71 Reception Gallery

“How Are Things on My End” features mixed-media paintings and works on paper. These bold, abstract tableaus are comprised of sinewy lines, puddles, and smears of translucent bright colors, broken up by flat shapes of opaque and sometimes muddy colors reminiscent of artist Henri Matisse’s use of cut paper to form compositions. With a mix of the soft and hard edges of the natural and industrial world, Ranee observes and inserts into her fluid compositions a synthesis of the cacophony of city and country life, as well as her own daily gatherings and seclusion.

Erika Ranee's painting titled "Grandma" features an abstract representation with rich, layered textures and a vivid color palette. Swirling patterns and dynamic brushstrokes create a sense of movement and depth. The composition includes various shapes and forms in warm colors like reds, oranges, and yellows, interspersed with cooler tones of blue and green. — Erika Ranee, "Grandma," 2021; acrylic, shellac, spray paint, and paper collage on canvas; 84-by-72 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist and Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York.

Ranee pokes fun at selfie culture and the narcissism inherent with being an artist and making art about oneself through the titling of her exhibition and artworks. In the show title, “How Are Things on My End,” she switches “your” with “me.” In doing so, Ranee said, it "flips the switch on typical caring comments” and serves as a “play on selfie/me/vain culture.”

Ranee’s colorful abstract paintings are built through a push-pull application of painting, collage, and décollage methods, which create layered surfaces that embody the raw urgency and physicality reminiscent of action painters and art brut, with a density and flatness seen in graffiti art. Yet Ranee’s interlocking bands of paint and paper produce a luminous, translucent quality like the airy expanses of color field painters. In the painting “I Wonder if I Know What You Mean,” 2022, an ethereal gradient of red-orange to yellow-green radiates behind a field of flat white shapes overlaid with a web of gray and blue lines, as well as drawings of plants and the artist’s niece’s braids. Ranee’s observations of nature and family float suspended in the glowing open spaces of the painting with a stained glass window-like effect.

Michiko Itatani

“Cosmic Encounters”

Ruth C. Horton Gallery

“Cosmic Encounters” consists of seven large-scale oil paintings depicting imagined interiors of stately concert halls, observatories, libraries, and cathedrals punctuated with otherworldly light and celestial phenomena. Itatani's imagined architectural spaces, seemingly devoid of human presence, are shrouded in mystery. Under the veil of night, the interior floors come alive with a collection of globes, constellation maps, scientific and musical instruments, and other curiosities placed under starry skies, peering through the glass ceilings of the exaggerated linear perspectives in Itatani's compositions.

Michiko Itatani “Quantum Chandelier” painting from Tesseract Study 21-C-04 features a central, ornate chandelier emitting a soft, radiant pink glow. Surrounding the chandelier are swirling abstract shapes and dynamic forms in various shades of pink, red, and white, creating a sense of movement and energy. — Michiko Itatani, “Quantum Chandelier” painting from Tesseract Study 21-C-04, 2021; oil on canvas; 60-by-72 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist and Storage, New York.

The animated characters in these worlds are patterned luminescent orbs that organize themselves into cascading rings and floating chandeliers or appear as theatre lights. The radiating orbs can be otherworldly or natural phenomena. In several paintings, a trio of chandeliers with rings of glowing orbs resemble alien craft. In others, the hovering yellow orbs mimic fireflies, infiltrating a Gehry-like glasshouse from the forest outside. The lights appear as the only living entities, independent from the fixed interiors. Set against the nighttime scenes, they imply cosmic encounters — like the alien visitations depicted in science fiction stories searching humanity's caverns of knowledge and seeking contact. Each painting's upward view makes the viewer look to the heavens, reinforcing the feeling that these lights are otherworldly.

The exhibitions will be on view through Friday, Aug. 30.

Curator-led gallery tours

Take a deep dive into the summer exhibitions with the center’s monthly noontime curator tour, “Beyond the Frame.” Join Holcombe on the second Thursday of every month. Starting promptly at noon in the Grand Lobby, the tours are free and open to the public.

Holcombe will provide expert insight and contextualization, offer behind-the-scenes glimpses into the acquisition and installation processes, and answer participant questions. Learn more about the artists featured in the galleries and their works, including historical and thematic contexts, and be inspired to look at art and the creative process in new ways.

There will be three tours offered for the center’s current summer exhibitions on June 13, July 11, and Aug. 8.

Visiting the galleries

Located at 190 Alumni Mall, the Moss Arts Center’s galleries are open on Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. The center offers many opportunities for students, faculty, and community members to engage with artists and their work. To arrange a group tour of the galleries, contact Laura Higgins.

Parking is available in the North End Parking Garage on Turner Street. When not staffed for a special event, visitors may park in the garage by taking a ticket at entry and paying with Visa or Mastercard upon exit. Find more parking details online.

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Jamie Wiggert at least 10 days prior to the event at 540-231-5300 or email wiggertj@vt.edu during regular business hours.