Shu Ikeda studied painting in Tokyo Zokei University and graduated in 2004. Ikeda received the Honourable Mention at Canon’s New Cosmos of Photography in 2009 and the Mayor of Judge Prize at Tokyo Wonder Wall 2009. Ikeda’s works have exhibited in different museums in Japan.
Ikeda currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan
Formerly trained as a painter, Ikeda used to engage photography merely as an instrument to assist himself in painting. He eventually grew increasingly fond of photography and found it a medium that enables him to capture the fleeting moment in life. Ikeda later developed a unique method by combining photography and paper-cutting.
The central subjects in Ikeda’s past works are nature and light. Cutting patterns on photographs of natural landscape he took, Ikeda expresses the fragility of nature’s beauty and its changes over time – that it will inevitably fade away due to its mortality.
Ikeda’s most recent works are based on photographs taken in Japan and Hong Kong. The unique works mirror the deconstruction and reconstruction of urban landscape, as they highlight Ikeda’s new technique of reconstructing imagery in photographic collage beyond his signature cut-up photographs. In a blend of exquisite craftsmanship and a Zen-infused approach, these works reflect a deepening of the literal and philosophical meaning of the void in Ikeda’s art.
