Leiko Ikemura

Leiko Ikemura (Japan, 1951). After completing her schooling, she moved to Osaka to study at Osaka University from 1970 to 1972. She decided to complete her studies abroad and went to study at the University of Fine Arts in Granada, Seville, from 1973 to 1978. She later moved to Zurich and in 1980 began the work for which she is recognized today.

Leiko Ikemura held her first solo exhibition at the Bonn Kunstverein in Born, Germany, and decided to live in the Nuremberg artist residence shortly after. From 1980 on, she exhibited her work internationally in Basel, Melbourne, and Tokyo. In the 1990s, Leiko Ikemura focused her work on women and began her teaching career at the Berlin School of Fine Arts in 1991.

Contemporary Japanese artist Leiko Ikemura presents a body of work known for its nebulous depictions of dreamscapes and disintegrated faces. The artist attempts to convey uncertainty with her strokes throughout her ever-changing work. Her work is also characterized by the intersection of two cultures: on the one hand, referencing Western art history, but with themes and formal vocabulary that immerse the viewer in Japanese tradition, venerating asymmetry, incompleteness, and ambiguity.