Kei Ito: The Beginning, in the land around me

The Griffin Foundation Gallery, January 18–April 2, 2023

Presented in partnership with Center for Fine Art Photography
In collaboration with Asian Pacific American Cultural Center

The Beginning, in the land around me is a solo exhibition featuring the work of multimedia artist Kei Ito. The five projects presented span work Ito completed between 2020 and 2023 that converge and center on his own nuclear heritage as a third-generation hibakusha—atomic bomb victim—and expand Ito’s exploration of and research into the American nuclear experience. The exhibition surveys the experiences of “downwinders” (persons living downwind of a nuclear test site or reactor) and creates an environment to discuss the shared pasts and traumas that both hibakusha and downwinders have suffered at the hands of nuclear weapons, all that goes into their creation, as well as issues surrounding health, environmentalism, and our current global system of war and peace.

These projects occupy the gallery and stand as witnesses to our shared histories. The gallery becomes a monument to both the past and the present and asks the questions: has war ever ended, and is the price for peace the same as that for wartime?

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kei Ito is a Japan-born visual artist working primarily with camera-less photography and installation art and currently teaching at the International Center of Photography in NYC. Ito received his BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology and his MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. Ito’s work addresses issues of deep intergenerational loss and connections as he explores the materiality and experimental processes of photography.

Support for this project and related programming has been generously provided by the FUNd Endowment at CSU, the National Endowment for the Arts, and with support from Colorado Creative Industries.