Leiko Ikemura

Leiko Ikemura is one of the best-known artists of Japanese origin working in the West. Her work, including drawings, paintings, and sculptures, have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan. Presented here in Leiko Ikemura: Day, Night, and Half Moon is the most comprehensive collection of Ikemura’s work, encompassing more than 200 drawings, the majority of them previously unpublished, and a broad selection of her paintings and sculptures.

            Ikemura’s fabulous drawings are celebrated for their oscillations between opposites—light and dark; joy and pain; day and dream. In them, she creates a highly personal, vast, and secretive universe beyond space and time, populated by maiden-like beings and fantastic creatures. Accompanying the lush illustrations are essays by eminent critics, including Donald Kuspit, that foreground Ikemura’s themes and aesthetic approach.

            A fascinating volume of work by an artist who bridges East and West, Leiko Ikemura: Day, Night, and Half Moon will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary art.