Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle is delighted to announce that Leiko Ikemura has been selected as a recipient of Japan's Persons of Cultural Merit Award. The award was presented on November 4, 2025, by His Majesty Emperor Naruhito and Her Majesty Empress Masako, together with members of the Imperial Family, who hosted a tea ceremony at the Imperial Palace to honor the recipients.
Since the 1980s, Leiko Ikemura has created a poetic and multifaceted body of work exploring themes of transition, femininity, motherhood, sexuality, and transculturality. Her works form imaginary worlds where organic, creaturely, and landscape elements merge into fluid shapes. Internationally recognized, Leiko Ikemura's visual language challenges artistic conventions, moving effortlessly between raw oil paintings, delicate watercolours, and tactile sculptures in terracotta, bronze, and glass.
