Wenn Pfauen Flügel öffnen

With almost 50 works from 40 years, Leiko Ikemura (born in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, lives and works in Berlin and Cologne) shows an impressive cross-section of her work in her first solo exhibition in northern Germany. Ikemura had also redesigned the Peacock House, which is located on the grounds of the Gerisch Foundation, into a new art venue on the occasion of the foundation's 20th anniversary. With the reclining girl figure Sleeping Figure in Red in the self-designed interior, she picks up on central themes of her œuvre with delicate charcoal drawings. Nature, humans, animalistic creatures or flora and fauna are recurring motifs in Ikemura's work. The artist moves freely in a wide variety of media, so that the viewer is constantly presented with new content and formal-aesthetic terrain. Especially in the current crisis-ridden times, the sharpness of the artist's gaze and her commitment are highly contemporary. In paintings, watercolors, drawings, and terra-cotta and bronze sculptures, she focuses on the investigation of femininity, society's relationship to the environment, and cosmic connections. The catalog When Peacocks Open Wings richly illustrates Leiko Ikemura's poetically sensitive exhibition. With texts by Brigitte Gerisch-Hölk, Anette Hüsch and the artist herself.