Shugoarts

Leiko Ikemura

10 Oct - 21 Nov 2009

© Leiko Ikemura
Floationg, 2009
Tempera on jute
60x70cm
LEIKO IKEMURA
"ME ZA ME"

Oct. 10, Sat., 2009– Nov. 21, Sat., 2009
Closed on Mon., Sun. and holidays

By closing their eyes, maybe the girls can escape the gaze of the viewers.
Leiko IKEMURA
ShugoArts is pleased to present "Me za me," a solo show of the artist Leiko Ikemura.The title "Me za me" (awake) refers to the state of consciousness - a central idea in the work by Leiko Ikemura.Leiko Ikemura's artworks are inhabited by a cast of young girls, birds and landscapes stretching to the horizon, each serving as a metaphor. It is this symbolism that lends the work significance. In Lago with a girl there is a girl who appears to be sleeping. a lion, and, in an ellipsis - shaped frame floating above them, a landscape with a horizon. The landscape looks like something the sleeping girl and lion might be imagining, or perhaps it is the world in which they live. At the same time, the framed landscape makes us conscious of the real world, thereby making the girls appear fantastical by comparison. These various messages leave the viewer with the impression of being made to "waver" between the imaginary and the real, the symbolic and the actual. Ikemura's artworks are suggestive of the things that exist in the middle, "which appear as a result of these changes in consciousness and of crossing back and forth across boundaries of reality and fancy. The exhibition includes new drawings, sculptures and paintings. We encourage you to see it.
Born in Mie Prefecture. Moved to Europe in 1973. In 2009 awarded the August Macke Award. Major solo exhibitions include: "Beyond the horizon," Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (2000); "Sculpture Painting Drawing" Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, etc. (2004-2005); "u mi no ko," The Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum (2006); "Leiko Ikemura: Day, Night and Half Moon," Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen (2008). Group exhibitions include: MOT Annual 2004 "Life Actually" (2004); "The World is a Stage," Mori Art Museum (2004); "Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin," Neue Nationalgalerie (2006); "Emotional Drawing," The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, etc. (2008). This is Ikemura's third exhibition at ShugoArts, and her first since 2006.
 

Tags: Leiko Ikemura, August Macke