Stacks of neon orange suitcases, open trunks with mirrored insides and brightly hued paintings beckon from Superposition Gallery’s stand at Frieze Los Angeles—among the most eye-catching in the fair’s Focus section. The installation, by the local artist Greg Ito, is titled A Cautionary Tale. Ito says he would like visitors to read their own cautionary tale into the work. “Everybody has an uncertainty or a trouble in their life that they’re facing,” he tells The Art Newspaper. “And I feel like everybody has some raised awareness of the current state of things in the world and what their place in it is.”
The stand also references the Japanese American artist’s personal family history. During the Second World War, Ito’s grandparents and great-grandparents were forced to relocate to internment camps. They had to sell their homes and businesses in a hurry and could only bring a suitcase or a trunk with them.
In fact, Ito’s installation was inspired by a trunk his grandmother left behind and that was later used by his parents. “I’m using the Japanese American story as a delivery device,” Ito says. “It’s a way for me to show we all have histories within our family. We all have similar stories of displacement, of hardship, but also of success and growth. It’s very integrated into the human condition.”
Ito’s installation uses bright colours because “they are caution colours”, he says. “Red and yellow are supposed to make you aware of your surroundings. Do not hit this thing. Do not go this way. You need to stop.”
Meanwhile, his paintings are small rays of hope—depictions of a burning candle, a campfire lamp, a ship in a bottle. “We can’t let the doom and gloom of life put us in a headlock,” he says.
At the end of opening day, Superposition had sold several works on the stand—including sculptures for prices between $12,500 and $13,500 each and three paintings for $8,000 each.
