Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage Public Opening

Visit the Audain Art Museum for the public opening of 'Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage'. From 1pm - 2pm, Artist Manabu Ikeda and Curator Kiriko Watanabe will be signing exhibition catalogues in the Museum's main lobby.

'Flowers from the Wreckage' features Ikeda’s meticulously detailed pen-and-ink drawings that are filled with astonishing images. This Japanese artist seeks inspiration from his surroundings to bring attention and awe to viewers, as a way of sending warnings about the painful reality of environmental disasters. Central to his practice are metaphors of grief and the undeniable aspects of life that are often beyond society’s control, including the fundamental forces of Mother Nature. Ikeda’s drawings also reveal human resilience and the ability to rise above devastating situations when it appears impossible.

Curated by Kiriko Watanabe, the Audain Art Museum’s Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Curator, this is Ikeda’s first solo retrospective in North America showcasing over sixty works from national and international collections. 'Flowers from the Wreckage' includes 'Foretoken' (2008), 'Meltdown' (2013) and 'Rebirth' (2013-16), a selection of Ikeda’s large-scale drawings that relate to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake; the most devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power disaster in the country’s recorded history.

Image: Manabu Ikeda, 誕生 'Rebirth', 2013–2016
pen, acrylic ink, and transparent watercolour on paper, mounted on board
300 × 400 cm
Collection of Saga Prefectural Art Museum, Saga, Japan Digital Archive by Toppan Printing Co., Ltd