The female physique has been a cornerstone of expressiveness throughout the history of modern art. Over the last two decades, it has been at the centre of the development of Leiko Ikemura's body of work. She challenges the preconceived notions of the glamorization of womanhood as predominantly depicted in the works of male a
Read More The female physique has been a cornerstone of expressiveness throughout the history of modern art. Over the last two decades, it has been at the centre of the development of Leiko Ikemura's body of work. She challenges the preconceived notions of the glamorization of womanhood as predominantly depicted in the works of male artists. Ikemura objects to this arbitrary form of representation which, in her opinion, overly emphasises the alluring aspect of the feminine appearance. This characterization of female embodiment, has been the defining aspect of her work. She has fearlessly decided to reject the social limitations which have been largely adopted to stereotype women in our modern societies. Born in Japan in 1951, Ikemura studied art in Osaka until 1970, before relocating to Spain then in Zurich in the 1980s. Her paintings encapsulate the ethereal quality of imaginary sceneries, combined with a sense of imminent fracture. The observer is reduced to accept their own sense of unease about the unpredictability of the paintings's expressiveness. Ikemura's mature work makes use of the full range of possibilities which are available to her, through sculpture, photography as well as painting. She bravely confronts her own compulsions to articulate the correlation which she believes to exist, between her paintings illusive landscapes and our fragmented conceptions of feminine idealization. (
Artist website)
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