Flowers from the Wreckage | Audain Art Museum

On display until October 9, 2023, Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage features Ikeda’s meticulously detailed pen-and-ink drawings that are filled with astonishing images. Through his everyday observations, this Japanese artist renders entangled fragments to create a spectacular whole that prompts viewers to look deeply into his visual expression.

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.

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Image credits:

Manabu Ikeda in front of New Work in progress, 2019–
pen, acrylic ink, and transparent watercolour on paper, mounted on board
300 × 600 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Mizuma Art Gallery
Photo: Eric Baillies

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