Born in 1973, Saga prefecture, Ikeda basically lives and works in Tokyo. He is now participating in the three-year residency at Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin since 2013.
Read MoreIkeda is notable for his intricate drawing using thin pen and acrylic ink to depict massive natures. In most of his works, nature swallows industrialized cityscapes. Long time after human being destroying the nature, the nature will recover and invade the industrialized society. While architectural and mechanical motifs in details impose us a sense of reality, the entire composition shows the enormous power of nature.
Ikeda doesn't set a specific subject in the beginning of his work. He doesn't even draw a rough sketch to decide the entire composition. He starts with details and gets ideas as he goes by. This process arouses unpredictable expressions to evolve his work in the end. In details, viewer can observe many kinds of situations or environments and move one to another that evokes stories.
Rather than maintained industrial objects, ruins eroded by the nature attract Ikeda. Instead of choosing motifs related with his own memory or experience, shapes and colors of an object moves him, especially when they are pell-mell. He can draw just 10 square centimeters a day by working for 8 hours and it takes more than a year to finish one work.
In 2008, Ikeda finished his drawing titled "Foretoken" that implies Hokusai Katsushika's Great Wave (early 19th century, Japan) - the symbolic image of Japan. In Ikeda's work, the wave is dragging and destroying our civilized life. Buildings, ships and trains are all swallowed in the big wave. Prophetically, the tsunami hit Tohoku area of Japan on March 11th, 2011 and destroyed cities. Although he didn't even started this work to draw a wave and it could have ended up being a mountain. Tsunami occurred as a coincidence, however, he concerns that it was one of the warnings for civilization to be swallowed by the vast power of nature.
The tsunami caused the nuclear accident in Fukushima 2011 as well and Ikeda responded with his work titled "Meltdown" (2013). A large iceberg like entity is slipping down into the ocean upholding huge energy plants or factories. He had concerns over the nuclear accident and the radioactive elements released in the air while he was in Vancouver when it happened. The disaster made him acutely aware that industrialization through the building of factories and energy plants is vulnerable to catastrophe. He feels that industrial growth is unsustainable.
Existence (2004) was selected as one of the eight most significant works of the year in a special feature of the New York Times in 2011. His works have been exhibited internationally in major institutions including Re-Imagining Asia at The House of World Culture (Berlin, 2008), Great New Wave: Contemporary from Japan at Art Gallery of Hamiltion (Hamilton, 2008), Bye Bye Kitty at Japan Society Gallery, (New York, 2011) and Garden of Unearthly Delights at Japan Society Gallery (New York, 2014).
Manabu Ikeda completed his master's degree at Tokyo University of the Arts. Collections featuring his works have been presented by such institutions as Chazen Museum of Art Madison (USA), Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art (Japan), Mori Art Museum (Japan), The Obuse Museum & The Nakajima Chinami Gallery (Japan).
Text courtesy Mizuma Gallery.
