San Francisco-based curator and writer Jordan Stein presents on the life and work of Miyoko Ito (1918–1983), an artist of uncommonly mysterious and exquisite vision, and his new book, Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts, the first publication devoted to her practice. While Ito's work sold briskly in her adopted hometown of Chicago, she endured for decades the fate of the artist’s artist: those revered by fellow travelers but kept quiet, like a secret. She was understood beyond the Midwest—if she was understood at all—as a regional artist, that most disparaging and unreasonable of categories. As a more expanded view of art history has taken hold in recent years, there has been increasing critical acclaim for her paintings and an ever-growing band of admiring artists, curators, and collectors. Regardless of her relatively limited reputation, she was intensely, even desperately, devoted to her practice. “I have no place to take myself except painting,” she confided in a 1978 interview. Stein will address the development of her practice and the making of the new monograph, a slow-burning treasure hunt fueled by both diligence and luck, and conducted over the course of several years.

Jordan Stein is a curator based in San Francisco and the author of Rip Tales: Jay DeFeo’s Estocada & Other Pieces (Soberscove Press, 2021) and Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts (Pre-Echo Press, 2024). With Will Brown, he is the author of Bruce Conner: Brass Handles, and with Jason Fulford is the editor of Where to Score, a collection of hippie-era classified advertisements. In 2017, he founded Cushion Works, an exhibition space in the Mission District that aims to link past and present through the varied presentation of critical—and often overlooked—artworks, histories, and ideas. He has independently organized exhibitions with dozens of artists at venues such as the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Artists Space, Yale Union, San Francisco City Hall, The Glass House, Matthew Marks Gallery, Fraenkel Gallery, and The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, where he formerly served as Curator of Special Projects. He was a Curator at KADIST, San Francisco from 2016–2022.