Upstream is an excellent example of Ito’s rich, heavily painted surfaces and evocative color combinations. Though distinctly abstract, Ito’s imagery recalls the landscape, urban architecture, or even the human body.

Ito was born in Berkeley, California in 1918, and spent her childhood between the United States and her parents’ native Japan. In Japan, she excelled at calligraphy and watercolor painting and went on to study art at the University of California. Ito was set to graduate in May 1942, but in April of that year she was one of 8,000 Japanese Americans sent to Tanforan internment camp. Ito led art classes with fellow accomplished artists while imprisoned at Tanforan, though she rarely spoke of her experiences there later in life.

After her release in 1943, Ito moved to Chicago where she earned an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and continued to develop her unique style of abstraction and moved from working in watercolor to oil paint. Although she was under appreciated during her lifetime, Ito is recognized today as an influential and incredibly innovative artist.