YUJI AKATSUKA

 


photo:Mitsuru Goto

When one looks at Yuji Akatsuka's paintings, one has the feeling that the colors and shapes which have sunk deeply into one's consciousness have become visible again, as we glance back and feel them come into the corner of one's eye. Sometimes that feeling holds a very concrete form or sometimes it has the feeling of an atmosphere of a whirlpool with its changing temperature.

We first collaborated with Akatsuka in 1995, although he had been making prints himself before that. Through etching and aquatint he made the series of intaglio prints entitled "hana", and also made the large scale "Canary 1,2" which used a combination of intaglio and water-based woodblock printing. We then also continued to collaborate with him in 1996, 1998 and 2001.

Akatsuka freely uses the special characteristics of blur and shade of intaglio, and so in his work faint images in the darkness come and go. His work has the feeling of speed to be felt as if scribbling on paper and so too the image on the plate furiously comes and goes.

In 1998 the book of pictures and poems entitled "Kotori " was published. This was made with a combination of Akatsuka's prints and his wife, the poet Naoko Nishimoto's poems. The prints are folded into two and and presented as an unbound book. The surface of the paper is covered with monochrome intaglio prints and alternated with the poems. As one's hands turn over the pages, beneath them flecks of color appear here and there.
 
   

 
     
Canary 1,2 / Cage 7
1995
large etching, woodblocks
hana
1995
4 etchings
     

tree I, II, III
1995
3 etchings

Backyard 他
1996
6 etchings
Trees
1996
9 etchings
     
hana(white) / hana(black)
1998
2 large etching
KOTORI
1997
artist's book : etchings
CROSS STRIPES
1998
7 etchings
     
2
2001
6 etchings
1or2 (English)
2001
4 etchings
Gate (English)
1997
3 lithographs
     
Biography
1955
1981
Born in Kagoshima Pref.
Completed the Master Program of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
   
Selected Solo Exhibitions
1981
1983
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995

1996
1999
2001
Galerie 412,Tokyo
Gallery Kobayashi,Tokyo('84〜'88,'92,'93,'95,'96,'98,'01,'03,'04)
Galerie Ando,Tokyo('92,'94,'96,'98,'02)
Galleria Finarte,Nagoya('94,'99,'02)
Gallery Yonetsu,Tokyo
Ota Fine Arts,Tokyo
Gallery Ikeda Bijutsu,Tokyo('96,'98,'01,'04)
Gallery Murayama,Tokyo ('97,'98,'99,'00,'01)
Gallery Kamakura,Tokyo
Komagane Kogen Art Museum, Nagano
HANASAKAN, Kagoshima
   
Selected Group Exhibitions
1989
1990

1991
1992



1994




1995

1997
1998

1999



2001


2003


2004
"Japanese Contemporary Art in the 80's" Heineken Village Gallery,Tokyo
"PRESENT TO THE FUTURE" Heineken Village Gallery, Tokyo
"Contemporary Prints in Sapporo 1990" INAX Space, Sapporo
"Tokyo Art Expo・JAPAN ART SCENE '90" Tokyo International Trade Fair, Tokyo
A Perspective on Contemporary Art・Among the Figures” The National Museum of Modern Art,Tokyo
Also traveled to The International Museum of Art, Osaka (-'03)
"Art Today '92" Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Karuizawa
"TAMA VIVANT '92" Shibuya Seibu Seed Hall, Tokyo
"VOCA '94・The Vision of Contemporary Art" The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
"Light & shadow・the sense of ephemerality" Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (-'95)
"A Breeze from Yokohama・Yokohama Contemporary Arts Exhibition in Celebrarion of the 20th Anniversary of the Friend-City Affiliation Between Yokohama and Shanghai" Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
"Allegory of Seeing 1995 : Painting and Sculpture in Contemporary Japan" Sezon Museum , Tokyo
"Kyobashi-Kaiwai '95" Gallery Ikedabijutsu,Tokyo
"ART TODAY 1997 OPERA APERTA” Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Karuizawa
"Art 29 '98 " Messe Basel, Basel
"Print of Prints" Bunpodo Gallery,Tokyo
"The 7th International Contemporary Art Exhibition [POLAND-JAPAN]" The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama
"Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery : Selected Works from the Permanent Collection Part 1" Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo
"NICAF 2001 TOKYO" Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo ('03)
"Chiba Art Now '01" Sakura City Museum of Art, Sakura
"In Search of FORM-11 Japanese Artists" Pusan Metropolitan Art museum, Korea
"The Power of Painting -Japanese Painting Since 1980" Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
"Modern Art in Japan -from the Collection of The National Museum of Modern Art" The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
"50 Years of Contemporary Art" Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Selected Public Collections 
The National Museum of Modern Art
Sezon Museum of Modern Art
Yokohama Museum of Art
Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery
Main Galleries
Gallery Ikeda Bijutsu,Tokyo
Gallery Kobayashi,Tokyo
Gallery Kamakura,Kamakura
Galerie Ando,Tokyo
Galleria Finarte, Nagoya
 

Walk about 120103 2001 215X300cm
oil on canvas
photo:Mareo Suemasa
Courtesy of Gallery Kobayashi 



Untitled 199903 1999 270X250cm
oil on canvas 
photo:Mareo Suemasa


Canary 29211 1992 227X180cm
oil on canvas
photo:Nomadic
Courtesy of Gallery Yonetsu