Her first solo exhibition at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle and first solo exhibition in Munich after 30 years, leads us into the visual worlds of the artist.
In her long artistic career, Leiko Ikemura has created a complex, poetic and internationally acclaimed oeuvre. Her first solo exhibition at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle and first solo exhibition in Munich after 30 years, leads us into the visual worlds of the artist.
The sculptures in glass and bronze, as well as paintings from different work cycles, offer a narrative journey through imaginary (pictorial) worlds. Ambiguous and ambiguous, ever-changing, condensing and dissolving, essential, organic and landscape seem to merge in amorphous configurations. The physical boundary between the image and the space of experience is shown to be transgressed, if not obsolete; an immanently immersive effect emanates from the works, drawing the recipients directly into their sensual cosmos of experience.
The triptych "Sinus Woman" can be read as a symbolization of a genesis. Abstracted landscape settings and omissions transform organically into amorphous color formations, which in turn conceal mystical, anthropomorphic figures. "Red Light" lets the explorative moment of transcendence shine through its potentiated degree of abstraction. What remains is an instantaneousness of perfect sensual-emotional radiance. By means of a decided painting gesture that dances across the canvas, as it were, the color pulsates on the picture carrier, compresses and diffuses. In these works, imagination is elevated to a central stylistic device in a virtuoso manner. The glass sculpture "Usagi with wings" seems to bundle the light within itself and thus unfolds autonomous luminescent forces from within, giving the hybrid figure its unique contour and shape. The bronze sculptures "Memento Mori" and "Lying" are also expressions of a process of condensation and simultaneous dissolution and, as organic hybrid beings, seem to refer to natural cyclicity as the fundamental principle of our perceptible universe.
Leiko Ikemura's works are the subject of highly acclaimed international exhibitions and are currently on view at the Museum de Fundatie Zwolle, NL and the Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Mexico. Previous shows include Georg Kolbe Museum Berlin, CAC La Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, Valencia (2021/2022); Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich (2021); Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos; Kunsthalle Rostock (2020); Kunstmuseum Basel (2019); Nordiska Akvarellmuseet, Skärhamn (2019); and The National Art Center, Tokyo (2019). Works by the artist are in numerous renowned collections, including the Albertina, Vienna; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Collection Florence & Daniel Guerlain, Paris; MAC's-Musée des Arts Contemporains, Grand-Hornu (Belgium); Bundeskunsthalle Bonn; Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf; Kunstmuseum Basel; Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau; Kunstmuseum Bern; Kunsthaus Zürich; Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Aichi Prefecture (Japan); The National Museum of Art, Osaka (Japan); The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Otsu, Shiga Prefectur (Japan); MAT-The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (Japan); Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz (Liechtenstein).
