This is the first of four Visual Voices lectures offered during the Fall 2024 semester. This event will be in person at Concert Hall and online via zoom. RSVP is required to receive the zoom link. 

Kei Ito (b. 1991) is an interdisciplinary installation artist working primarily with photographic media and sculpture. Ito received his BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology followed by his MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art.

Ito’s photographs are fundamentally rooted in the trauma and legacy passed down from his late grandfather, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and the loss of many other family members from the explosion and subsequent radiation poisoning. His work meditates on the complexity of his identity and heritage and seeks to visualize invisible forces such as radiation, memory, and human mortality.

By excavating and unveiling hidden histories connected to his own, Ito utilizes his generational past as a case study for reckoning contemporary and future events. Within these intertwined pasts, Ito shines a light on power and its relationship to larger global issues that often lead to and result in both war and peace alike. Many of Ito’s artworks transform both art and non-art spaces into temporal monuments that become platforms for the audience to explore troubling social issues and memorialize those lost to historical and contemporary tragedies. Within his research and photographic processes, he recasts memories of horror and trauma into an oasis of peaceful reflection.

Visual Voices is a Professional Lecture Series offered by Mason Exhibitions and the School of Art at Mason. Speakers are chosen with faculty guidance to represent leading and emerging talented practitioners, as well as artists whose work lies beyond the subject areas of the program offerings. Visual Voices is free and open to the public!