Leiko Ikemura

Leiko Ikemura is an internationally-renowned artist whose work spans the genres of drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and poetry. At the centre of her work is an exploration of nature, femininity and the cyclical rhythm of life and death. In her solo exhibition at the Georg Kolbe Museum, the Berlin-based artist presents hybrid figures in flux between growth and decay and questions forms of human existence.

The exhibition is mainly dedicated to Ikemura’s sculptural work. The show features more than 30 sculptures and selected paintings and drawings since the 1990s, including numerous recent works. Her works in ceramics, bronze and glass bear witness to her multifaceted exploration of the traditions of sculpture and its materialities.

Born in Japan, the artist has lived in Europe since the 1980s, initially in Spain and Switzerland, before settling in Berlin. Coloured surfaces and a sculptural language that oscillates between form and dissolution of form are typical elements of Ikemura’s work, which combines Western European and East Asian cultures.