Kelly Akashi
Material tactility, its possibilities, limitations, and transformation form the core of Kelly Akashi's practice. Originally trained in analog photography, traditional processes and the materiality of documents continue to inform and fuel her sculptural explorations. Working in a variety of media, such as wax, bronze, fire, glass, silicone, copper, and rope, Akashi investigates the capacity and boundaries of these elements and their ability to construct and challenge conventional concepts of form.
In her sculptural practice, Akashi utilizes indexical materials to emphasize the impressionability and physicality of objects. Often pairing delicate hand-blown glass or hand-made wax candles with bronze casts of her own hands, the artist captures momentary gestures, casting them into perpetual existence. Her interest in the mapping of time has led her to study fossils from extinct species in order to locate humankind amongst other consciousness that have thrived along the earth’s geological timeline. Drawing attention to the fluidity and interconnectedness of the media she uses, Akashi aims to capture the tension and physicality of objects in her practice.
Kelly Akashi was born in Los Angeles, California, where she lives and works. The artist graduated with a MFA from University of Southern California in 2014. Akashi also studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste - Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main and received her BFA at Otis College of Art and Design in 2006.
Akashi currently has a major solo traveling exhibition entitled Formations. The exhibition traveled from the San Jose Museum of Art, to the Frye Museum of Art in Seattle, and to the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (2022-2024). Upcoming, Akashi will have a solo exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle (2023). In 2020, Akashi had a solo exhibition of a commissioned sculpture, Cultivator, at the Aspen Art Museum. She is a winner of the 2022 LACMA Art + Technology Grant and the 2019 Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Art Prize where the artist had a residency at the foundation in Ojai, California. Other residencies include ARCH Athens, Greece (2019) and at Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA (2019) - both of which concluded with a solo exhibition. Other important solo exhibitions include Long Exposure curated by Ruba Katrib at the SculptureCenter, New York (2017). The artist’s work has been featured in Ground/work at the Clark Art Institute and Possédé·e·s at MoCo Montpellier Contemporain in France. Other notable group exhibitions include the Hammer Museum’s biennial, Made in L.A. (2016); Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (2017); LA: A Fiction, Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, France (2017); Take me (I’m Yours), curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jens Hoffmann, and Kelly Taxter, Jewish Museum, New York (2016); Can’t Reach Me There, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2015).
Kelly Akashi’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; MOCA, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Frye Art Museum, Seattle; CC Foundation, Shanghai; X Museum, Beijing; The Perimeter, London; David Roberts Art Foundation, London; Sifang Museum, Nanjing, among others.
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Kelly Akashi: Encounters
Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle September 30, 2023 - May 5, 2024 -
Concerning Nature
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York September 6 - October 13, 2023 -
Kelly Akashi: Formations
Frye Art Museum, Seattle June 17 - September 3, 2023 -
Kelly Akashi: Infinite Body
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York April 27 - June 10, 2023 -
KELLY AKASHI: FORMATIONS
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose September 3, 2022 - May 21, 2023 -
IRL
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York September 9 - October 23, 2021 -
THE RETURN OF THE REAL
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York July 14 - August 28, 2020 -
Kelly Akashi: Cultivator
Aspen Art Museum June 24, 2020 - April 11, 2021 -
Kelly Akashi: Mood Organ
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York February 27 - April 18, 2020 -
Kelly Akashi: a thing among things
ARCH, Athens June 19 - September 9, 2019 -
Living in a Lightbulb curated by Jenny Jaskey and Mia Locks
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York June 6 - July 26, 2019 -
PINE BARRENS
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York June 21 - July 27, 2018 -
Kelly Akashi: Long Exposure
SculptureCenter, New York September 18 - December 18, 2017