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Yoko Ikeda & Mary Laube

The World Is Our Idea

ONLINE EXHIBITION

January 7 – February 28, 2021

Yoko Ikeda Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture, 2017

Yoko Ikeda
Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture, 2017
​Type-c print

Mary Laube ​Headrest, 2019 12x14" Acrylic on panel

Mary Laube
Headrest, 2019
12 x 14"
Acrylic on panel

Mary Laube Pomp, 2016 24x24"

Mary Laube
Pomp, 2016
24 x 24"
Acrylic on panel

Yoko Ikeda Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture 2013

Yoko Ikeda
Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture 2013
Type-c print

 

Mary Laube JAG, 2017 24x24"

Mary Laube
JAG, 2017
24 x 24"
Acrylic on panel

Yoko Ikeda Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture 2013

Yoko Ikeda
Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture 2013
Type-c print

 

Mary Laube Excavation, 2019 11x14"

Mary Laube
Excavation, 2019
11 x 14"
Acrylic on panel

Yoko Ikeda Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture 2017

Yoko Ikeda
Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture 2017
Typce-c print

 

Mary Laube Statue of a Boy, 2019 12 x 12" Acrylic on panel

Mary Laube
Statue of a Boy, 2019
12 x 12"
Acrylic on panel

Yoko Ikeda ​Gujo City, Gifu Prefecture 2017

Yoko Ikeda
Gujo City, Gifu Prefecture 2017​
Type-c print

Mary Laube ​Silkworm Spun, 2019 22x30" Acrylic and colored pencil on paper

Mary Laube
Silkworm Spun, 2019
22 x 30"
Acrylic and colored pencil on paper

Mary Laube Fed from the Mulberry Tree, 2019 30 x 22" Acrylic and colored pencil on paper

Mary Laube
Fed from the Mulberry Tree, 2019
30 x 22"
Acrylic and colored pencil on paper

Yoko Ikeda Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture 2019

Yoko Ikeda
Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture 2019
Type-c print

Yoko Ikeda Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture 2017

Yoko Ikeda
Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture 2017
Type-c print

Mary Laube Warm, 2020 12 x 9" Colored pencil on paper

Mary Laube
Warm, 2020
12 x 9"
Colored pencil on paper

Yoko Ikeda Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture 2015

Yoko Ikeda
Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture 2015
Type-c print

Mary Laube Stilled Clatter, 2015 24 x 24" Acrylic on panel

Mary Laube
Stilled Clatter, 2015
24 x 24"
Acrylic on panel

Yoko Ikeda Fresno, CA USA 2014 Type-c print

Yoko Ikeda
Fresno, CA USA 2014
Type-c print

Yoko Ikeda Meguro Ward, Tokyo 2012 Typce-c print

Yoko Ikeda
Meguro Ward, Tokyo 2012
Type-c print

 

Mary Laube Perfume, 2018 12 x 9" Acrylic on panel

Mary Laube
Perfume, 2018
12 x 9"
Acrylic on panel

Yoko Ikeda Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture 2019 Type-c print

Yoko Ikeda
Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture 2019
Type-c print

Yoko Ikeda Izumo City, Shimane Prefecture 2014 Type-c print

Yoko Ikeda
Izumo City, Shimane Prefecture 2014
Type-c print

 

Mary Laube The Attendant, 2019 12 x 12" Acrylic on panel

Mary Laube
The Attendant, 2019
12 x 12"
Acrylic on panel

Yoko Ikeda Tokushima City, Tokushima Prefecture 2019 Type-c print

Yoko Ikeda
Tokushima City, Tokushima Prefecture 2019
Type-c print

Mary Laube ​Sparrow, 2020 12 x 9" Colored pencil on paper

Mary Laube
Sparrows, 2020
12 x 9"
Colored pencil on paper

Yoko Ikeda ​Amsterdam, Netherlands 2015

Yoko Ikeda
Amsterdam, Netherlands 2015
​Type-c print

 

Press Release

The World is Our Idea
Yoko Ikeda & Mary Laube


***ONLINE EXHIBITION***

Moving through the world, we all infuse the things we encounter with personal meaning. Photographer Yoko Ikeda (b. 1965 Kanazawa City, Japan) and painter Mary Laube (b. 1985 Seoul, Korea) use their respective mediums to explore this routine form of creativity. 

Speaking about her photographic practice, Ikeda explains that it’s not her intent to record her surroundings, instead she seeks to “create a new world through the lens”. She intentionally seeks out “humble” situations and objects, seeing in them an opportunity for imaginative transformation. Because these small moments go overlooked they are also more free, lacking larger meanings they can become vessels for Ikeda’s personal visions.

Mary Laube cites the creative aspect of memory as being central to her approach to painting. When things are remembered imperfectly our minds fill in the gaps, Laube expresses this in her paintings by allowing objects to slide towards abstraction. As these things move away from their original forms and functions they become more personal, markers of half-remembered places and times. Similarly, her work deals with the mutable nature of identity when she “paraphrases” cultural objects from Korea, a country that she grew up with virtually no direct memory of, having transplanted to the US at a young age where she was raised by her adopted family.

Laube observes that something her and Ikeda’s work have in common is that, while human form is absent from their pictures, a human presence is always strongly implied. Ikeda’s photographs allow things within the frame to go out of focus, lending a subjective and improvised feeling to her images. Rather than a neutral depiction, Ikeda offers a the sense of the kind of close and personalized looking that life’s quieter moments allow for. Laube’s objects have a similar mood, they feel as if they’re partly remembered and partly created by the associated acts of thinking and looking.

Both of these artists create pictures that suggest that the world isn’t a place but an idea that’s unique to each of us, made anew when we take the time to look.

 

Yoko Ikeda was born in Kanazawa City, and studied at the Research Department of the Tokyo College of Photography. She now lives and works in Tokyo. Her work has been exhibited in many one-person and group shows throughout Japan, as well as in Belgium and various venues in the United States. In 2013, she was the recipient of the prestigious Philadelphia Museum of Art Purchase Award, and her work is included in their collection. In 2016 she was awarded the Higashikawa New Photographer Award and in 2018 Ikeda was awarded the first ALPA purchase award for Best Artist at Photo Basel.

Mary Laube was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in the Chicago area. She received an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Iowa. Recent exhibitions include VCU Qatar, Trestle Gallery (NYC), Monaco (St Louis), Troppus Projects (Kent), the Spring Break Art Show (NYC), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (NYC), California State University (Stanislaus), and Coop Gallery (Nashville). She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee Knoxville in Painting and Drawing.