"...But the true darling of the show is Madoka Ito. Better known for her intricate handiwork with ink (on view at the Basil Hallward Gallery at the downtown Powell's), for this show Ito created new works in oil on wood. The series revolves around white, faceless figures, dressed in jewel-toned garments and standing in windswept landscapes. Some figures sprout tree branches from their heads. If you lean in close, you will see Ito has incorporated her signature whimsical details -- but instead of painstaking ink brushwork she has used pieces of thread, etching and miniscule points of color.
Indeed, Ito seems to have crystallized what all of the artists seem to want to communicate, but couldn't quite say. Where the familiar meets the unknown, where lines dissolve into puddles and where humans and houses begin to sprout and grow, that is where beauty lies."
Art review: Curator's surprise conceit
The Oregonian
by Rachel Neugarten
January 19, 2007
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