Background
Leiko Ikemura was born on August 22, 1951, in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, Japan.
She was raised in Japan.
丁目-1-1 Aomatanihigashi, Minoh, Osaka Prefecture 562-0022, Japan
Osaka University of Foreign Studies
St. Alban-Rheinweg 60, 4052 Basel, Switzerland
Museum of Contemporary Art of Basel
Heimplatz 1, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland
Kunsthaus Zürich
４丁目-2-55 Nakanoshima, Kita, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture 530-0005, Japan
Osaka National Museum of Art
Berlin University of Fine Arts
Place de la Riponne 6, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts
160 W Liberty St, Reno, NV 89501, United States
Nevada Museum of Art
丁目-1-1 Aomatanihigashi, Minoh, Osaka Prefecture 562-0022, Japan
Osaka University of Foreign Studies
St. Alban-Rheinweg 60, 4052 Basel, Switzerland
Museum of Contemporary Art of Basel
Heimplatz 1, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland
Kunsthaus Zürich
Place de la Riponne 6, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts
４丁目-2-55 Nakanoshima, Kita, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture 530-0005, Japan
Osaka National Museum of Art
Berlin University of Fine Arts
160 W Liberty St, Reno, NV 89501, United States
Nevada Museum of Art
レイコ イケムラ
Leiko Ikemura was born on August 22, 1951, in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, Japan.
She was raised in Japan.
At the age of nineteen, Leiko Ikemura entered the Osaka University of Foreign Studies, Japan where she had studied Spanish literature for two years. To pursue her education, Ikemura moved to Spain where in 1973 she became a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Granada. The young artist combined her training with the sculpture apprenticeship in a workshop.
Later, Ikemura came to Seville where she had studied painting in the Academy till 1978.
Leiko Ikemura started her professional artistic career at the beginning of the 1980s when she came to Switzerland. The early artworks of this period caught critics’ attention in Zurich.
The debut personal exhibition of Ikemura’s art was organized in 1983 by the Bonn Artists Union at the Bonn Kunstverein museum, Germany. This one was followed by the exhibition at the Art Museum in Nuremberg. The same year, Ikemura received an invitation from the authorities of Nuremberg to work as an artist in residency. She spent in the city nine months. In 1985, Ikemura relocated to Cologne.
During next several years, Ikemura presented her paintings at various personal and group shows, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Basel, Switzerland, the Kunsthaus Zürich, both in 1987, the DuMont Kunsthalle in Cologne, Germany (1988), Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland (1988) and the National Museum of Art in Osaka (1989).
At the end of the 1980s, Leiko Ikemura revealed her interest in sculpture, particularly female figures.
Despite her artistic activity, Ikemura also works as a teacher of art. So, in 1991, she occupied the post of the Professor of Painting at the Universität der Künste (University of Fine Arts) in Berlin where she had worked till 2015.
In 1999, the artist tried her hand as a decorator – she designed the Japanese pavilion for the International Biennale in Melbourne.
The next position Ikemura received became the professor’s post at the Joshibi University of Art and Design in 2014 in Kanagawa, Japan.
Nowadays, the artist lives and works in Berlin and Cologne, Germany.
One of the recent exhibitions of Ikemura’s art, called ‘Leiko Ikemura: Poetics of Form’ took place in the United States in 2016 at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Nevada.
Leiko Ikemura is a modern artist whose creative mind is recognized around the world.
During her career, Ikemura received a huge variety of prestigious awards and prizes, like Prize of the Foundation for Graphic Art in Switzerland, Iserlohn Art Prize, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Award and the August Macke Prize.
According to the Internet resource ArtFacts.net Leiko Ikemura occupied the sixth place among the most influential Japanese painters in 2015.
Ikemura’s artworks are preserved in permanent collections of different well-known galleries and museums all over the world, including Japanese ones, like the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, the National Museum of Art in Osaka and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. Other collection include the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, Austria, the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, Germany, the Kolumba museum in Cologne, Germany, the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Liechtenstein Museum of Fine Arts, the Bern Museum of Fine Arts, the Kunstmuseum Basel, both in Switzerland, and the National Museum of Modern Art at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France.
Leiko Ikemura’s artworks successfully combine the best of two cultures – Western and Oriental one.
The artist reflects the fragility of human beings using trees and faces as allegorical symbols of her paintings made with transparent materials. Another frequent element of Ikemura’s canvases is the red colour which is a sign of life and passion.
Quotations:
"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."
"The way females naturally accept being modeled by conventions and social norms does not interest me."
"Imagination is the strongest force in my work."
