Kei Ito

Ito's work addresses issues of generational connection and deep loss as he explores the materiality of photography as a medium. His current work deals with the tragedy and legacy passed on from his grandfather who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, yet died from cancer and the threat of nuclear disaster which is still present today.

His recent works express a strong connection between the sun and his family history regarding the idea of invisibility in light and shadow, and how the unique characteristic of photography as a media has allowed him to express this matter.

On August 6th, 1945, at 8:15 AM, Kei Ito's grandfather, Takeshi Ito, witnessed a great tragedy that destroyed nearly everything in Hiroshima. He survived the bombing, yet he lost his family members from the explosion and radiation poisoning. As an activist and author, Ito's grandfather fought against the use of nuclear weaponry throughout his life, until he too passed away from cancer when Kei Ito was ten years old. Ito remembers his grandfather saying that day in Hiroshima was like hundreds of suns lighting up the sky.

In order to express the connection between the sun and his family's history, Ito has created 108 letter size prints and a 200-foot long scroll, which were made by exposing Type-C photographic paper to sunlight. The pattern on the scroll corresponds to his breath. In a darkened room, Ito pulled the paper in front of a small aperture to expose it to the direct sunlight while inhaling and paused when exhaling. He repeated this action until he breathed one hundred and eight times. One hundred eight is a number with ritual significance in Japanese Buddhism and culture, called Joya no Kane. It's an event where all of the Buddhist temples in the country strike human size or larger bells one hundred and eight times from New Year's Eve to New Year's Day. The number corresponds to the number of evil desires that we suffer from on earth, which is believed to cause war. This rids us of our evil passions and purifies us for the upcoming year. The ritualistic image making of this repeating act, which corresponds to his breath, has become the act of remembrance.[3]

Ito has shown in over 50 exhibitions worldwide. Among those are solo exhibitions at prominent spaces such as Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art Museum, Winston-Salem, NC; Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA; IA&A at Hillyer (Hillyer Art Space), DC; and Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH. Group exhibitions of note include: the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; the Walters Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL; California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA; and PH21 Gallery in Budapest, Hungary.

2019

• Archives Aflame, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art Museum, NC[4]
• Out of the Box: Camera-less Photography, The Norton Museum of Art, FL[5]
• Ghostly Traces: Memory and Mortality in Contemporary Photography, Vicki Myhren Gallery at University of Denver, CO[6]

2018

• InLight Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1708 Gallery, VA[7]
• Fotofocus Biennial 2018: Nuclear Fallout, Antioch College, OH[8]
• The Noorderlicht Summer: Opera Spanga Aida, Noorderlicht: House of Photography, Netherland[9]
• What Keeps You Up at Night, Mendocino College Art Gallery, Ukiah, CA
• Afterimage Requiem, Baltimore War Memorial, MD[10]
• Only What We Can Carry, IA&A at Hillyer (Hillyer Art Space), DC[11]
• Infertile American Dream, 14x48 Art Billboard, 215 Woodpoint Rd, Brooklyn[12]
• Atomic Traces, Online sponsored by 14x48.org Art Billboard[13]

2017

• Re:Collection, Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago, IL[14]
• 3rd International Exhibition on Conceptual Art, CICA Museum, South Korea[15]
• 54th Annual Group Exhibition, Masur Museum of Art, LA[16]
• Wave Pool 44th Group Exhibition, Field Projects Chelsea Gallery, NY[17]

2019

• Artist in Residence at Center for Photography at Woodstock [18]
• Semifinalist for the 14th Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize, Baltimore, MD[19]
• Artist in Residence at Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD[20]

2018

• Individual Artist Award: Photography, Maryland Arts State Council, MD[21]
• Artist in Residence at Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD[20]

2017

• Working Artist Photography Award/Grant, Working Artist Org, WA[22]
• Honorable Mention for INFOCUS Sidney Zuber Photography Award, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
• Maryland representative Artist for The States Project,[23] Lenscratch

2016

• 7th Manifest One Award,[24] Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
• Rubys Artist Project Grants:[25] Full grant recipient, GBCA
• Honorable Mention for IPA: International Photography Awards
• 4th Annual New York Times Portfolio Review recipient
• Shortlisted for Royal Photography Society Annual print exhibition, UK
• Snider Prize honorable mention
• Awards for Innovations in Imaging[26] awarded by Society of Photographic Education
• Shortlisted for Royal Photographic Society Annual print exhibition, UK
• Shortlisted for Tokyo International Foto Awards
• Honorable Mention Award at 53rd Annual Juried Exhibition at Masur Museum, Monroe, Louisiana

• Washington City Paper, The Best Photo Exhibits of 2018 by Louis Jacobson[27]
• Exposure Magazine/Medium, Art of the Atomic Legacy: the Work of Kei Ito[28]
• BBC World News and BBC Culture/Art interviewed about Afterimage Requiem exhibition.[29]
• Washington Post Magazine published an article about the project Afterimage Requiem[30]
• The Baltimore Sun Newspaper featured the project Afterimage Requiem on the front article[31]
• Washington Post reviewed the solo exhibition at Hillyer Art Space in DC[32]
• Strange Fire Collective "Q&A: KEI ITO"[33]
• Velocity Magazine "Making Meaning of the Atomic Bomb"[34]
• Art Maze Magazine International Issue 3: Summer, 2 page Spread, ART MAZE MAGAZINE LTD, UK[35]
• Featured on the Chicago Magazine “The 5 Biggest Buys by Chicago Art Museum in 2016”[36]

• Norton Museum of Art
• Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago[37]
• Center for Photography at Woodstock
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• Maryland Institute College of Art
• En Foco
• Chroma / California Institute of Integral Studies

• Masters of Fine Arts in Photographic and Electronic Media from the Maryland Institute College of Art, 2016
• Bachelors of Arts in Fine Art Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology, 2014