Yuta Ikehara. Imaginary Spaces

The contemporary Japanese artist Yuta Ikehara, associated with the prestigious Biwako Biennale, creates painterly objects in the form of traditional screens which he embellishes with decorative painted compositions in rich colour schemes. The typical screen decoration – landscape – turns into abstraction here while we can still sense references to nature in it. At the same time, the wealth of forms brings to mind the ‘baroque’ variety of Buddhism (the temple complex at Nikko) and the colour schemes used by Ikehara are akin to the opulence of liturgical vestments.