VIENNA.- The Albertina Museum is shining a gentle but powerful spotlight on one of the most poetic voices in contemporary art: Leiko Ikemura, an artist whose work seems to breathe, transform, and glow from within. Her new exhibition, Motherscape, is not just a retrospective—it is an immersive journey into a world where body and landscape merge, where femininity is reimagined as universal energy, and where humans and nature exist in deep, meaningful harmony.

Ikemura, born in Tsu, Japan, and long based in Germany, has spent decades weaving a visual language that blends Eastern philosophy with Western artistic traditions. Her paintings, sculptures, drawings, and glass works—luminous, fluid, and emotionally charged—invite viewers into a state of contemplation. They challenge us to consider how we evolve, how we connect, and what it means to create life, whether as artists, humans, or simply as beings in a constantly changing world.

A Life Shaped by Movement and Cultural Dialogue

Ikemura’s path as an artist reflects the themes she explores. She first studied Spanish literature in Osaka, then moved to Spain in 1972 to pursue painting in Seville. A few years later, she relocated to Switzerland, and by the 1980s she had settled in Germany, eventually becoming a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since 2014, she has also taught in Japan, continuing a cross-cultural dialogue that resonates deeply in her work.

Her achievements have brought wide recognition, including multiple art awards and, most recently, the prestigious honor of being named a “Person of Cultural Merit” by the Japanese government—one of the nation’s highest distinctions.

Motherscape: A World Where Everything is Connected

The heart of the Albertina’s exhibition lies in its title: Motherscape. For Ikemura, “motherness” is not about biological motherhood. Instead, she sees it as a creative, life-giving force that runs through everything alive. It’s a metaphor for artistic creation, for transformation, and for renewal.

Her Mother Beings, which populate the exhibition, feel both fragile and powerful. They resemble vessels—containers of life and potential. They seem to stand in quiet communion with the world around them, embodying openness, change, and emotional depth.

This idea expands to the natural world. Ikemura’s universe is one where humans, plants, and animals are linked, where boundaries blur and relationships form freely. Her sculptures often include openings or hollow spaces, inviting light to enter and become part of the artwork itself.

Scapes: Places of Rhythm, Breath, and Inner Landscapes

Among the most striking elements of Ikemura’s work are her Scapes—paintings that aren’t landscapes in the usual sense. Instead, she describes them as “inner rhythms,” spaces that form from the pulse of the body and the flow of emotion.

Layers of transparent color wash across the canvas like waves. Figures appear and disappear in soft transitions of light. Abstraction and representation dance together, making room for imagination and interpretation. The result is imagery that feels alive, open, and in motion—a kind of visual breathing.

Girls: In the Middle of Becoming

Ikemura’s Girls are equally compelling. They are not portraits, not specific people, but symbolic figures caught in a moment of transition. They embody the uncertainty and hope of adolescence, the longing for change, the early forming of identity.

Some appear as primordial figures, suspended in a state of eternal becoming. Others carry hints of motherhood, while others gaze down from above with a spiritual detachment. In all of them, Ikemura captures vulnerability and promise.

The Art of Becoming: A Process, Not a Product

For Ikemura, no artwork is ever truly finished. Everything she creates—whether clay, bronze, glass, paint, or pastel—is part of an ongoing process. She welcomes intuition, chance, and the natural behavior of materials.

“I want the material to speak,” she says. And it does.
The porousness of clay, the transparency of glass, the patina of bronze—each one contributes its own voice, shaping forms that seem to grow organically, as if from the earth itself.

Cracks, fingerprints, and irregular textures remain visible, telling the story of their creation. It’s art that embraces imperfection and movement, reminding us that becoming is a lifelong journey.

Icons of Compassion and Journey

Two works in the exhibition stand out for their emotional resonance:

Genesis, Tokaido, Tokaido evokes a mythical journey across cultures and states of being, turning Japan’s historic Tōkaidō road into a metaphor for inner transformation.

Usagi Kannon, created in response to the Fukushima disaster, merges the rabbit with Kannon, the Bodhisattva of compassion. It radiates solace, warmth, and a universal sense of hope.