Calligraphic brushstrokes and diffuse fields of colour compose landscapes in which every element appears to be in a constant state of metamorphosis. The forms that gradually emerge into view oscillate between geography, vegetation, and hybrid human-animal bodies. Leiko Ikemura’s Genesis series evokes both the ethereal atmosphere of Japanese sansuiga painting and the dramatic light and striking distortions that lend El Greco’s paintings their spiritual aura. This convergence of artistic traditions reflects the artist’s own trajectory. Born in Mie Prefecture, Japan, Ikemura has lived in Europe since the 1970s. Her work brings together echoes of Spanish-Golden-Age painting and the Neo-Expressionism of the Junge Wilde movement while employing key principles of Japanese aesthetics, including the expressive value of gesture, respect for materiality, and the embrace of imperfection. Ikemura’s visual language sustains a singular cosmology that, while deeply rooted in Japanese cultural references, addresses human experiences such as transformation, vulnerability, and transcendence. One key to understanding her work lies in the Buddhist concept of ukiyo (憂き世), which conceives existence as a continuous flow of impermanence. Within this universe, all beings inhabit states of transition. The rabbit in Usagi soñando (2023) refers to the Tsuki no Usagi tale, in which a rabbit offers its own life in an act of compassion and, transformed into an inhabitant of the moon, becomes a symbol of renewal. Inspired by this, in Rocket Girl (2024), the artist portrays adolescence as a suspended state in which body and identity undergo their most turbulent transformations. In Ikemura’s work, humans, animals, and landscapes all participate in the same cycle of becoming, where impermanence always carries within it the possibility of rebirth.

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION:

Bird Column 250 (2011/24), patinated bronze, 250 × 5 × 5 cm; Genesis II (2014), tempera on jute, 190 × 290 × 5 cm; Usagi soñando (2023), patinated bronze, 50 × 97 × 42 cm; Rocket Girl (2024), patinated bronze, 90 × 52 × 43 cm. All courtesy of the artist