The first sculpture chosen for the 2025 Women Artists of the DMV survey show comes from the talented hands and mind of a terrific artist whose work I’ve written about extensively, admired and seen spread and cross boundaries for years since this epic performance decades ago!
Melissa Ichiuji is one of our most innovative artistic minds in an area that flourishes with an over abundance of geniuses. At first look, one could attempt to categorize her as one of the leading textile artists on the planet – and you would both be (a) not wrong in doing so, and also (b) wrong in just assuming that her talents are confined to that genre of the fine arts.
Why? Because she’s also a remarkably gifted painter, installation artist, performance artist, and clearly an acolyte and follower of Picasso’s directive on how to be a great artist: God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.
With one important adaptation: In Ichiuji’s case, at least in my superbly fine tuned senses, she has clearly developed an unique sense of style that manages to cross all the borders of her artistic explorations into genres, media, subject matter, materials and recondite art niches. It is hard to express in words how she manages to deliver an eloquent imprimatura into all her artworks – like an imprimatura in painting, her initial layer of Ichiujiness applied to a artwork’s ground/start/base ends up saying “Melissa Ichiuji was here”, no matter what the media or subject matter.
Behold Goddess of the Burning House, 2016, 12 x 7 x 3 ft, Steel, acrylic, and electrical wiring.
| Goddess of the Burning House by Melissa Ichiuji 2016, 12 x 7 x 3 ft, Steel, acrylic, and electrical wiring |
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