Leiko Ikemura Japan, b. 1951

Leiko Ikemura was born in Tsu, in Mie Prefecture, Japan, in 1951. She lives and works between the German cities of Berlin and Cologne.

Ikemura studied Spanish and Linguistics at Osaka University. In 1972, she studied Fine Arts at the University of Seville, after which she lived in Switzerland, and in 1985 she moved to Cologne. She has taught at the Berlin University of the Arts and at Joshibi University of Art and Design in Kanagawa, Japan.

The female figure is the central subject of her work. Ikemura uses trees and faces as metaphors for human fragility, and paints dreamlike landscapes in which the viewer is immersed in a sensual and emotional experience. The primary driving force of her work is imagination.

Ikemura has held solo exhibitions at Karsten Greve Gallery, Cologne; the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno; the Neues Museum, Nuremberg; the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne; and the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, among others.

She has participated in group exhibitions in Denmark, Germany, France, Japan, and Korea, among other countries. Ikemura has been awarded the Prize of the Foundation for Graphic Art and has received fellowships from Faber-Castell & the City of Nuremberg and the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation.