Mitsu Ikemura
Canadian artist Mitsu Ikemura (born 1942, Osaka, Japan, died 2022 in Victoria B.C. ), a citizen for 50 years, was a mixed media artist. His richly-layered, semi-abstract ‘mindscapes’ integrate his background as an architect and urban designer with Asian-style brushwork, and he is also heavily influenced by Western-style classical music of the kind that he grew up hearing his mother play in Japan (Bach & Mozart). He began his art practice with the intention of articulating the essence of the Canadian landscape of the Rocky Mountains and the prairies in contrast to his native landscapes of Japan, and since then has continued to use his inner visions to invoke a universal, primordial awareness of being.
Ikemura explains that his ‘mindscapes’ ‘reflect an ongoing journey, a quest’, and that his personal explorations have brought him ‘to an inner landscape which at the same time is universal and timeless. He later extended outward with an exploration of physical movement, as he studied modern dance, then flamenco in Jeres de la Frontera and Argentine tango in Buenos Aires.
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“A FAREWELL SHOW to an intriguing, two-world artist”
Jeff Mahoney - Hamilton Spectator, April 20, 2022
Mitsu Ikemura - Sold
Mitsu Ikemura
“For me mediation is not an escape of reality, but rather to understand, what is - being here at this moment with my soul and body together. Then the result is the revelation/ joyfulness/ cheerfulness of our life celebration. That is what painting is about.”
Mitsu Ikemura in Studio
Mitsu Ikemura in the Hamilton Spectator, 1989.
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Mitsu Ikemura in Beckett Fine Art - Toronto, 2002