In occasion of Berlin Gallery Weekend, Kewenig Gallery inaugurated MORE THAN EVER, the solo show of the Swiss-Japanese artist Leiko Ikemura. After having lived in several European cities and in Japan, Leiko has been experimenting with sculpting, painting and illustration, and her entire body of work combines elements from Western and Eastern arts.

The pieces on show at Kewenig Gallery thrive on the theme of form and transformation featuring mythical creatures often deriven from Japanese mythology such as that of the Kitsune, a wild white fox that transforms into a beautiful young woman, which give to the showcase a mysterious and magical appeal. Ikemura’s works are always in a state of becoming, suspended in the pictoral plane’s transition between humans, animals and nature, barely tangible. The hunting motif of a shadowy woman with a slightly rumpled skirt recurs throughout the show. Ikemura’s juxtaposition of different organic take concrete shape in her sculptures, such as the bronze female torso rising with elongated rabbit-like ears from a seemingly architectural base. The figure appears to be grounded yet still floating, deriving from one world into another. Traces from the creative process and the marks of artist’s hand remain visable, giving the surface an idea of movement and a transparent awareness of the object’s origin. Exhibited for the first time, the works UNTITLED and BUST embody in a unique way the idea of a primordial landscape where human bodies in complete cohesion with nature and earth, can only be imagined.