ART CITIES:Zurich-Leiko Ikemura
Since the beginning of her artistic career, Leiko Ikemura’s work has been closely interwoven with her personal journey and the various stations in her life. Formative memories from her native Japan find as much resonance as the impressions from her early stays in Spain and Switzerland in the 1970’s and 80’s, which accompany her to this day. The intimate metamorphosis of a lifelong painting process manifests itself in landscapes in which human figures and nature merge, amorphous forms and hybrid mythical creatures in continuous transformation.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Peter Kilchmann Archive
Upon entering the exhibition “Colors in Motion” visitors are immersed in the world of “Girls”, a series characteristic of Leiko Ikemura’s painting since the mid-1990’s. Each of the four paintings in the exhibition shows a female figure in an unfamiliar landscape. In “Chica & Pink” (2019), the monochrome color palette of the purple background is interrupted only by the pale blue stripe of a spherical horizon in the lower third of the composition. The ethereal being in the foreground is a silhouette of transparent chromaticity that stands out from its surroundings in warm golden yellows and soft blues. This principle of contrast and transparency is repeated in works such as “Girl with Green” Hair (2019) or “Girl with Blue Face” (2019), each in a new combination of colors. The figures seem vulnerable and unreachable. As if trapped in an intermediate world, they lag in their own melancholic mind games. In the video installation “In Praise of Light” (2020), presented in the lower floor, the harmonious synthesis of a total work of art, characteristic of Ikemura’s works, becomes apparent. It is an interplay of light and flowing color. The slow movements are reminiscent of the liquid color pigments of a watercolor that has not yet dried, that recombine anew to form ever changing shapes. The work conveys the idea of painting as a process rather than a finished product. The viewers are urged to linger in a moment of contemplation and let the gentle visual surges draw them into an alien universe. “In Praise of Light” is directly related to the series “ABC Akt” (2020) in the middle space of the upper floor. Never before has the artist moved so far away from figurative painting. The abstract compositions combine elements of calligraphic brush drawing with the flat watercolor aesthetic from the “Girls” series. The translucent application of paint is reduced so that the fine structure in the fabric of the support of the painting becomes visible. It is a painting technique that absorbs the natural light of the room and seems to radiate it back. The works were created during the first lockdown in Berlin in the spring of 2020 and capture a zeitgeist marked by uncertainty and elementary life questions. In a moment of social standstill, the world moves on into the unknown. In the left wing of the upper level abstraction gives way to a universe of surreal landscapes that invites the viewers to dream. Similar hybrid creatures can be found in the group of glass sculptures in the right wing, with works such as “Kitsune” (2020) or “Trees on Head in Yellow Glass” (2020). The figure of the reclining head, from which the branches and leaves of a delicate tree grow, is a subject that had already appeared in early ceramics by the artist. For the exhibition, Ikemura worked with glass for the first time. Due to the translucency of the coloured glass, the sculptures seem like living beings that have emerged from the previously viewed landscapes, closing in this way the harmonious circle of the exhibition’s narratives.
Photo: Leiko Ikemura, Colors in Motion, exhibition view Galerie Peter Kilchmann- Zurich, 2021, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann
Info: Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Rämistrasse 33, Zurich, Switzerland, Duration: 19/6-31/7/2021, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 11:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-17:00, www.peterkilchmann.com
