/Museums
Kelly Akashi: Formations
Sep 03, 2022 - May 21, 2023
Thursday: 4–9pm Friday: 11am–9pm Saturday–Sunday: 11am–6pm
408/294-2787
Event WebsiteAbout
Kelly Akashi is known for her materially hybrid works that are compelling both formally and conceptually. Originally trained in analog photography, the artist is drawn to fluid, impressionable materials and old-world craft techniques, such as glass blowing and casting, candle making, bronze and silicone casting, and rope making. Encompassing a selection of artworks made over the past decade, Kelly Akashi: Formations is the first major exhibition of the artist’s work, and will feature a newly commissioned series in which Akashi explores the inherited impact of her family’s imprisonment in a Japanese American incarceration camp during World War II.
SF/Arts Curator Insight
SJMA features works by Los Angeles artist, Kelly Akashi for a major exhibition. The composite works interweave material, geology, and personal family history to tell a story that is West Coast to the core. Formation features a new work called Conjoined Tumbleweeds (2022) which is a large scale bronze cast of plants collected from the site of a former incarceration camp where the artists paternal family was held along with thousands of other Japanese Americans. This work, and the many other breathtaking pieces tell a story that is as much about landscape as lineage.
Luke Williams
Contributing Writer
The San José Museum of Art celebrates new ideas, stimulates creativity, and inspires connection with every visit. Welcoming and thought provoking, the Museum delights visitors with it’s surprising and playful perspective on the art and artists of our time.
The San José Museum of Art celebrates new ideas, stimulates creativity, and inspires connection with every visit. Welcoming and thought provoking, the Museum delights visitors with it’s surprising and playful perspective on the art and artists of our time.