'Leiko Ikemura: The Sea in the Mountains' at the Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, Switzerland

30 June 2025

From 23 August – 23 November, the Bündner Kunstmuseum presents 'The Sea in the Mountains' a new exhibition by Leiko Ikemura.

The Japanese-Swiss artist Leiko Ikemura is considered one of the most important contemporary artists. In her paintings and sculptures, she explores the transitions between human beings and nature. Ikemura grew up on the coast of Japan and moved to Europe in 1972. After spending time in Spain she moved to Switzerland in 1979 and later lived in Cologne and Berlin. In 1989 she withdrew into the mountains of Graubünden for a year to work, during which time she underwent a radical artistic reorientation.

Inspired by the face-to-face contact with nature, her paintings began to integrate the human form and its existential questions into a seemingly infinite cosmos. With this exhibition at the Bündner Kunstmuseum Ikemura returns to the region where her paintings once underwent a sea change. Opposites such as loss and recovery, transformation and deep-rootedness are once again brought together in a unified whole. By combining painting, sculpture and film projection, she creates a space where the sea lies above the mountains and time dissolves.

Find out more via the Bündner Kunstmuseum.

Image: Leiko Ikemura, Berlin Horizon I, 2012, tempera and oil on jute, 110 x 180 cm. Courtesy Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur. Photo: Joerg von Bruchhausen © Leiko Ikemura.