Izanami
Hanako O’Leary
Jan. 13-March 19
Spending most of her life on American soil, but always under a Japanese matriarchy, Hanako O’Leary learned to bridge these identities through art, employing traditional Japanese imagery to narrate her modern American story.
Unearthing the heroine’s journey while referencing mythology from her mother’s homeland, she investigates the origins of society’s gender based power structures and serves to revere the darkest and most feared reaches of the female body, through which we can beckon or deny life. With this work, Hanako honors the fight for one’s choice – to create or destroy what lies within our own underworld.
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| “Venus Jar 1” by Hanako O’Leary |
O’Leary was born and raised by her Japanese mother and American father. Every year, for two months during the summer holiday, her mother would take her and her siblings back to their ancestral home in Hiroshima, Japan. These summers were spent learning how to cook, clean, and honor her ancestors from her four aunts, Nagako, Nobuko, Atsuko, and Masako. Hanako attended this annual pilgrimage until the year she turned 18 and these summer months would deeply influence her spiritual beliefs, artistic voice, and feminine ideals.
Meet the artist!
Reception 3-5 p.m., Fri., Feb. 21
Art Gallery, Lynnwood Hall, third floor
Art Gallery Hours
Visit the gallery on the third floor of Lynnwood Hall.
- 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Monday-Thursday
- 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Friday
- 1-5 p.m., weekends