Akiko Kotani’s newest installation, BURST, depicts mother nature’s unrelenting power through color and form. Comprised of large, crocheted panels in vibrant satin waves, this piece conveys the potent force of nature, bursting forth from the gallery walls.
About the Artist
Akiko Kotani was born in Waipahu, HI and received her BFA in Painting from the University of Hawaii. She lived in the TriBeCa area of New York City, then left for Guatemala to study Mayan weaving. Wanting to integrate this cultural tradition into a contemporary vocabulary, she received her MFA in textiles from Tyler School of Art, PA and spent the next 21 years teaching as Professor of Art at Slippery Rock University and at Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Among the many awards Kotani has received are:
- 2006 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts’ Visual Artist Exchange Award for residence at Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland
- 2013 Pittsburgh Artist of the Year with grants from the Heinz Endowment and the Pittsburgh Foundation to mount a 4-gallery exhibition at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, PA
- 2014 receipt of one of two national Visual Artist Network (New Orleans) Conference Exhibition Awards
- 2019 Artist Laureate from Creative Pinellas, Largo, FL
- 2023 Florida Prize for Contemporary Art, Orlando Museum of Art, FL
Kotani’s work has graced 216 group and 40 one-person exhibitions. Her work resides in several private, corporate and public collections, among them the Baker Museum, Naples; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. Her studio is in Gulfport, FL, and she is represented by ARTicles Gallery in St. Pete.
