Exhibition at the Albertina Vienna, November 14, 2025 – April 6, 2026
The Albertina Wien dedicates its new major exhibition “Motherscape” to the Japanese-Swiss artist Leiko Ikemura, whose work unfolds as a fluid universe between body and landscape, humanity and nature, becoming and being.
Between East and West – A Language of Stillness
Born in Tsu, Japan, in 1951, Leiko Ikemura bridges cultures and worlds.
Her art speaks in a language of silence and transformation, exploring themes of femininity, identity, and spiritual creation.
Through painting, drawing, and sculpture – in glazed terracotta, bronze, and glass – she merges body and earth, human and landscape, in a delicate balance of vulnerability and strength.
Motherscape – A Landscape of Creation
Motherscape is not merely a title; it is a vision.
For Ikemura, Motherness signifies a life-giving energy that exists in all living things – beyond gender, beyond form.
Her “landscapes of motherhood” are open, boundless spaces of renewal, where light, body, and matter intertwine.
It is a celebration of the universal creative force that unites all beings.
Becoming and Transformation
Ikemura’s art is a continuous process – intuitive, physical, alive.
“Beginnings and endings are not my focus,” she says. “It’s what happens in between that matters.”
This approach infuses her entire body of work: from luminous, layered paintings to sculptures whose surfaces carry traces of their making – fingerprints, cracks, textures.
Her Beings – human, animal, vegetal – reflect a holistic world in which everything is connected.
Myth and Compassion
In Usagi Kannon, a sculpture uniting the rabbit with Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Ikemura transforms empathy into form.
Created in response to the Fukushima disaster, it embodies comfort and hope.
Her triptych Genesis, Tokaido, Tokaido reimagines Japan’s historic Tōkaidō route as a metaphor for life’s journey – between cultures, times, and states of being.
A Universe of Transformation
Curated by Ralph Gleis and Elsy Lahner, Motherscape presents 69 works – paintings, drawings, and sculptures – that unfold like meditative reflections on creation and change.
Honoured as Person of Cultural Merit by the Japanese government, Ikemura offers an artistic vision that is both timeless and profoundly human.
Visitor Information
Leiko Ikemura: Motherscape
📍 Albertina Wien, Pfeilerhalle
🗓 November 14, 2025 – April 6, 2026
🕓 Daily 10am–6pm | Wed & Fri 10am–9pm
Curator: Ralph Gleis | Co-curator: Elsy Lahner
👉 Catalogue “Motherscape” available at the Albertina Shop
