Throughout a lifetime, joy is bound to swirl with sorrow, hardship with hope. Storms roll in, flowers bloom, seasons cycle. For Los Angeles-based artist Greg Ito, these entanglements serve as a rich source of creative inspiration. He sees art as an offering that can spur healing and help with processing life’s ups and downs. “We are resilient creatures. I want people to remember that and embrace it,” Ito told The Center Magazine during a video call. “Whether the storm is outside of your house or inside it, we’ll all get through it. We'll all find a level of enlightenment that's very personal to ourselves and our personal journeys and experiences.”

The Enlightenment ribbons through Rockefeller Center, beckoning passersby to pause and decode its layered messages. If you approach the exhibition with a treasure-hunting mentality, you’ll start to see a visual language assembling before you, revealing open-ended storylines. You might even feel like you’re wandering through the full-color pages of a surreal, cinematic picture book. Look for poppy-colored flames and flame-colored poppies, bonsai trees and vining house plants, birds and butterflies, apples and orchids. Hourglasses and clocks nod to passing time. Doorways, windows, and keyholes serve as portals. Household objects hint at the contours of lives lived. These recurring motifs appear like clues in the wall art installed throughout the campus and inside a trio of color-saturated vignettes, which transform the vitrines in the lobby of 45 Rockefeller Plaza into miniature movie sets.

Upon seeing the long corridor on the Rink Level, with its golden frames and room for an expansive mural (a go-to site for Art in Focus installations), the artist had a bolt of inspiration: The linear layout reminded him of a film strip, and the 125-foot passageway brought with it metaphorical connotations, too—perfect as a narrative device for telling the story of seeking a new home and a new life, and what we carry with us along the way. The printed-vinyl mural melds Ito’s paintings with his debut photography series. In the luminous, color-saturated photographs, Ito plays a suit-and-tie wearing character, who moves through the frames furtively opening doors and lugging a black box, which, in some scenes, emanates a mysterious glowing light. Ito says, “I was inspired by my great-grandfather’s journey from Japan to LA—and this black luggage trunk that he brought.”

A fourth-generation Angeleno, Ito’s work has long been informed by Japanese American culture and his family’s history, including a remarkable, against-the-odds story that blossomed amid horrendous conditions: His grandparents met and fell in love while incarcerated in an internment camp during World War II. As Ito noted in a 2025 interview with Civil Art Publishing, their love story reminds him how “art can transcend and transform even the worst circumstances.” He adds, “Through art, we can filter through the uncertainty, pain, anger, and sadness of life to create objects that spark joy and love.” Now that he’s a father himself, the artist says he finds the focus of his work shifting. “As an artist, it was always like me, me, me. But now it's all for my daughter,” he says. Ito has even carved out a dedicated part of his art studio for his 4-year-old kid, where she can make her own artwork. “Time really moves fast with the little one running around, and it’s teaching me to be more present and have a good outlook on life, no matter how crazy the storm is outside. And we're in a crazy storm right now.”

As people meander and zip through Rockefeller Center this summer, The Enlightenment offers a place to pause and reflect. “If that's thinking about the current state of the times or past experiences or something they're going through, I think everyone's experience is valid,” Ito says. “I just want the artwork to be there to offer a moment of reflection with themselves.”

Greg Ito’s show, “The Enlightenment,” will be on view throughout the Rockefeller Center campus through August 29, 2025. This installation is part of Art in Focus, a series of art exhibitions produced in partnership with Art Production Fund.