Mikki Itzigsohn has always fraternized with musicians, but “Songwriters” signifies her first time painting them. On display through March at Yard Dog Art Gallery, the bassist’s debut solo art show pays tribute to the composers who inspired her own creative expression.
“Telling your story through the creative process is just so magical to me,” Itzigsohn, who plays in garage group Small Wigs and lounge act Mikki & Elvis, tells the Chronicle. As a teenager in Los Angeles, she played in an all-girl punk band and worked at a record store, but says she grew “entranced” with songwriters like Connie Converse, Patti Smith, and Karen Dalton after working at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, which doubled as a folk music venue. Once she started painting more seriously during the pandemic, that interest bled over into her visual art.
Itzigsohn relocated to Austin in 2022 after years of visiting – including on tour with blues rocker Benjamin Booker, who she backed up during a 2017 Austin City Limits taping. Yard Dog’s original South Congress location was always on her list of stops, prompting her to “cold email” owner Randy Franklin with two samples of her “Songwriters” series after the move. “It was very organic,” she says of the partnership.
The subjects in “Songwriters” are all women – an unintentional but understandable outcome, considering her inspirations. Hoping to depict those figures’ “wisdom, forgiveness, strength, creativity, storytelling, perseverance, and badassery,” the artist incorporates owls and tigers as symbols of strength that, in some pieces, watch over the women, while in others, curl up at their feet like pets.
Itzigsohn’s paintings suspend her composers in an unreachable, almost unreal time and place; in some rooms, the walls are painted bright fuchsia or light lavender, while in another, the walls are swapped for a field of wildflowers. “I have an obsession with timelessness,” Itzigsohn admits. “I really love the Sixties and Seventies, and that’s a root in my style, but I really just like things that are classic and timeless, [where] you can’t really tell what era they’re from.”
One piece trades more conventional songwriters for nuns, who play in a circle accompanied by birds and smiling bowling pins. “I grew up Jewish in L.A. [where] nuns were this untouchable, mystical, mythical presence,” Itzigsohn explains. “I just loved the style and the dress.” She traces the painting to Jeannine Deckers, “The Singing Nun,” and religious Ethiopian composer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou.
Like the songwriters who first captivated her at McCabe’s, Itzigsohn hopes her series inspires others to create. “The show is all about speaking up, telling your story and using your voice,” she says. “I hope it helps people do just that.”
Bassist Mikki Itzigsohn Premieres First Visual Art Show
A version of this article appeared in print on Feb 23, 2024 with the headline: Bassist Mikki Itzigsohn Premieres First Visual Art Show
This article appears in February 23 • 2024.