Miyoko Ito (1918–1983, Berkeley, California) was a Japanese American painter who lived and worked in Chicago. She developed a distinctive form of abstraction shaped by Cubism, Surrealism, and Japanese painting. Her paintings bring together geometric and organic forms, often suggesting figures and landscapes without depicting them directly. Ito was part of the Chicago art community and was associated with the generation of artists that emerged around the Hyde Park Art Center in the 1960s and 1970s. Her work has since been recognized as an important contribution to postwar American abstraction. Solo exhibitions include Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago (2024); Matthew Marks Gallery, New York (2023); Michael Werner Gallery, East Hampton (2022); Artists Space, New York (2018); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2017); and the Renaissance Society, University of Chicago (1980), among others. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2025); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2025, 1975); Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago (2025); George Adams Gallery, New York (2024); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1972); and the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (1955), among others.
American Art Catalogues designed Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts, the first monograph devoted to the artist’s work, published in 2023.
