13 Facts About Leiko Ikemura

Leiko Ikemura is a Japanese-Swiss artist who works in a variety of mediums, including oil painting, sculpture, and watercolor.

Leiko Ikemura's work has been featured in a number of solo exhibitions in Japan and Europe, and is held in the permanent collections of major institutions such at the Centre Pompidou, Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunstmuseum Bern, Kunsthaus Zurich, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

Leiko Ikemura studied at Osaka University from 1970 to 1972, majoring in Spanish.

Leiko Ikemura then left Japan to study in Spain from 1973 to 1978 at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Granada and Seville.

In 1979, Ikemura moved to Zurich to pursue a career as an artist.

In 1991, Leiko Ikemura became a professor of painting at the Universitat der Kunste in Berlin.

Leiko Ikemura has identified Japan and Switzerland as both feeling like "home," and in addition to her native Japanese is fluent in Spanish, German, and English.

Leiko Ikemura first began her career in Switzerland primarily with drawing.

Leiko Ikemura herself has expressed a particular emotional affinity with the medium of drawing, describing it a "immediate and honest," with this honesty being a crucial tenet to her work and lifestyle.

Leiko Ikemura has noted the vast stylistic potential of the medium and how this is manifested in her drawings throughout the course of the career.

Leiko Ikemura's triptychs consist largely of landscape elements, fusing imagery from European landscapes Japanese landscape imagery.

Leiko Ikemura explained one of her reasons for the choice of this motif in a 2011 interview:.

Leiko Ikemura was deeply affected by the aftermath of the March 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, and in response created the first largescale Usagi Kannon.