DYNAMISM and METAMORPHOSES
Japanese artist Leiko Ikemura blends the cultures of Europe and the country of her birth, creating constantlyevolving works that reflect her research into metaphysical themes
by Micaela Zucconi
Usagi, Girl double headed by Leiko Ikemura, 2019. Sculpture in terracotta, glazed, on show in the Light on the Horizon exhibition at the Heredium Art Museum of Daejeon in South Korea
To side, Memento Mori by Leiko Ikemura, 2022, in galvanised bronze (from the exhibition at the Heredium Art Museum of Daejeon, South Korea). On the walls, Dude by Leiko Ikemura, 2022, in tempera and oil on jute
One of the most interesting artists on the contemporary international scene, active in Berlin and Cologne, her works are a synthesis of the cultures and experiences that have shaped her artistic personality, revealed through paintings, drawings, sculpture, performance, poetry and photography. Leiko Ikemura switches seamlessly between these different media. Born in Tsu, western Japan, in 1951, she continued her art studies at Seville, Spain, the first stage in an artistic and life journey that led her to settle in Europe, first in Switzerland then Germany. Her worlds are those of animals, plants, water, the sea, people and horizons, seen through the filter of her native culture but fused into a meld of personal experiences, literary references and the interior and exterior dynamics of the objects of her interest, becoming the projection of her constant evolution as an artist. Of course, as she herself recognises, her sources of inspiration include the ancient Japanese masters, as well as Surrealism, post-war Modernism and the trends of the 1980s, a period when she came to notice with large paintings. In the 1990s she began to take an interest in female figures in drawing, painting and sculpture. Faces with sublimated features, abstract silhouettes in response to the current iconography of the female image, often centred on stereotypes. “I think the female figure, as imagined by male artists, is frequently an idealized version of the female form and is always seductive in some way,” she explained of her decision to focus on the subject. “The way females naturally accept being modeled by conventions and social norms does not interest
To side, from the exhibition by Leiko Ikemura at the Heredium Art Museum of Daejeon; With Hummingbird, 2022. Sculpture, Cast glass; Velvet Girl 2020/2022; Light on the Horizon. 2021. Sculpture, Cast glass; Sleep II, 2022. Sculpture, Cast glass; Kitsune, 20/2022. Sculpture, Cast glass; Cat, 2020/2023. Sculpture, Cast glass. Small Head with tail, 2020/2022
Sculpture, cast glass
To side, Figure with Three Birds by Leiko Ikemura, 2021 Sculpture, patinated, from the exhibition With Blue Birds at the PalaisPopulaire, a permanent venue by Deutsche Bank Collection and an international forum for Art and culture in the heart of Berlin. Below, Light on the Horizon by Leiko Ikemura. Tempera on canvas from the exhibition at the Heredium Art Museum
me”. Her eclectic artistic production has passed from the trans-avant-garde to Expressionism and then increasingly abstract representations. In recent decades Leiko Ikemura has focussed on landscapes with monumental, cosmic breadth. Her works consider the widespread concerns about climate change, adopting a metaphysical approach where human beings and nature combine to create hybrid creatures, metamorphosing cockatrices that express a dynamic synthesis of spiritual, cultural and natural forces. Even more recently she has produced glass sculptures resulting from a collaboration with the artistic
glass work of Studio Berengo in Venice. Her pieces have appeared in a long list of high-profile exhibitions and solo shows in museums and institutions, and are present in important collections like the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Albertina Museum (Vienna), the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Kunstmuseum (Basle) and the National Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo). There is a packed programme of future shows, starting with an event at Frieze London next October and the Lisson Gallery, which represents the artist, is to hold a one-woman exhibition in New York in spring 2025. The Kunsthalle
From left, Sinus Spring I, 2018. Painting - Tempera on jute; Sinus Spring II, 2018 Painting - Tempera on jute. Sinus Spring III, 2018. Tempera on jute
©Mathias Schormann
©Oh Myoung
©Oh Myoung
Hasen-Säule III /Hare-Column III, 2022. Sculpture: patinated bronze; On the stairs, Waterfall Dark, 2020. Painting: Tempera and oil on jute. And, to side, Waterfall Bright, 2020. Painting: Tempera and oil on jute. All from the exhibition at the Palais Populaire in Berlin
Emden, Germany, will be displaying her work in a solo exhibition from 23rd November 2024 to 23 March 2025, and the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art will feature her work in December. In 2025 it will be the turn of the Bündner Kunstmuseum in Chur. Ikemura is also well-represented at art auctions - recent sales include a piece acquired last June at Artcurial and the breath-taking sum obtained by Dorotheum in 2023. Bidding for this 1986 work began at 12,000 euro, but it eventually went for 28,600 euro.
Leiko Ikemura with her sculpture Usagi Kannon, 2012/2019. Sculpture: Patinated bronze. From the exhibition at Heredium Art Museum, Daeieon, South Korea. The artist has a forthcoming solo show at the Kunsthalle Emden in Germany (November 23, 2024 -March 23, 2025)
©Mathias Schormann
©Oh Myoung