"By closing their eyes, maybe the girls can escape the gaze of the viewers."

-- Leiko IKEMURA

ShugoArts is pleased to present "Me za me," a solo show of the artist Leiko Ikemura.The title "Me za me" (awake) refers to the state of consciousness - a central idea in the work by Leiko Ikemura.Leiko Ikemura's artworks are inhabited by a cast of young girls, birds and landscapes stretching to the horizon, each serving as a metaphor. It is this symbolism that lends the work significance. In Lago with a girl there is a girl who appears to be sleeping. a lion, and, in an ellipsis - shaped frame floating above them, a landscape with a horizon. The landscape looks like something the sleeping girl and lion might be imagining, or perhaps it is the world in which they live. At the same time, the framed landscape makes us conscious of the real world, thereby making the girls appear fantastical by comparison. These various messages leave the viewer with the impression of being made to "waver" between the imaginary and the real, the symbolic and the actual. Ikemura's artworks are suggestive of the things that exist in the middle, "which appear as a result of these changes in consciousness and of crossing back and forth across boundaries of reality and fancy. The exhibition includes new drawings, sculptures and paintings. We encourage you to see it.