Leiko Ikemura: "the other side of the horizon"

September 7, 2017—October 14, 2017 | Reception Thursday, September 7th, 6-8pm

James Harris Gallery is pleased to present “the other side of the horizon,” a solo exhibition by internationally celebrated Japanese-Swiss artist Leiko Ikemura. Over the past four decades, Ikemura’s mixed media practice of painting, sculpture and drawing has explored the limits and depths of the human condition. Developing her own unique pictorial language of dreamlike imagery and motifs, Ikemura conjures up worlds that speak to core emotional states of loneliness, longing, and existential searching. Influenced by her experience in both Japanese and Western cultures, Ikemura’s work draws inspiration from varied histories and traditions from Eastern Japanese master Sesshū to Western French Post-Impressionist Cezanne. This exhibition includes a suite of paintings, works on paper, and three ceramic pieces that depict nature, the human form, and expressive abstraction, all weighted with symbolic meaning that transports the mind to a metaphysical realm.

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“Floating Orange Head” 2007
“Girl with red cat” 2011
“Girl in red dress with red cat” 2010-2011
“Girl Dancing” 2010-2011
“Liegende (gelb) [Lying (yellow)]” 1997
“Thoughts” 2010-12
“Zarathustra 1” 2014
“Mikohead” 2010
“Trees” 2007
“Trees” 2007
“Lying Figure Mexico” 2008
“Lying Figure Mexico” 2008

Leiko Ikemura

Born in Tsu, Japan, Leiko Ikemura immigrated to Europe at age twenty-one, landing first in Spain where she studied literature and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Seville. She moved to Switzerland in the early 80s, where she began to exhibit her work in group exhibitions. In 1983 her first major solo exhibition was held in Bonn, launching her career in Germany where she eventually moved and has continued to live and work, teaching painting the Berlin University of Fine Arts from 1992 to 2015. Ikemura’s work is documented in numerous catalogues and books, and is included in internationally prominent public collections including Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre George Pompidou, Paris, France; The Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland; the Kunstmuseum Linz, Lentos, Museum of Modern Art Linz, Austria; the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan; and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Osaka, Japan. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions throughout Europe and Asia, and recently at the Nevada Museum of Art. She lives and works in Cologne and Berlin.