Over the last number of months, quite a few galleries have brought to our attention relatively unknown 20^th-century women artists who deserve greater recognition, and the discovery of these artists has been quite a joy. Matthew Marks Gallery is now participating in this trend with an exhibition of Miyoko Ito (1918-1983), who lived in Chicago much of her working life. Born in California, she lived briefly in Japan with her parents to receive a traditional Japanese training, returned to California, was imprisoned at age 24 in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, and received degrees from Smith College and The School of Art Institute, Chicago. In Chicago she became associated with Chicago Imagism and was part of the artist group, the “Allusionist Abstractionists,” formed in 1981. Ito’s work is lovely. With quiet harmonic colors, vaguely representational references perhaps suggestive of memories, soft atmospheric fields of color and subtle geometries, she created innocently pure and gently dreamy effects. Apparently, Ito lived for art, often painting from sunrise to sunset. Painting is “like breathing,” she tells an interviewer. “It’s a necessity, it’s do or die…Every time I have a problem…I go deeper and deeper into it. I have no place to take myself except painting…it’s been my biggest lifegiving force.” The show is up through April 15.