Fujio Akai    Sep 20 - Oct 3, 2011

The Adam Gallery is delighted to present a selection of Fujio Akai’s recent ‘water paintings’. The work shows the distinctive fusion of elegant brushwork inspired by his upbringing in Japan, and the influence of Western movements such as abstract impressionism.

Akai studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the 1960s, where friends and admirers of his innovative work included Sigmar Polke, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik and Jorg Immendorf. His work there was experimental, involving performances, music and installations. He was an inspirational figure and provided an important link to Japan for many European and American artists – for example in 1970 he traveled with Sol Lewitt and Carl Andre to Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto.

Akai works on a large scale, with waves of vibrant and translucent colour that absorb the viewer in to the composition. The reviewer Anna Britten has described the potency of the work:

‘His colours are extraordinary: blood red, emerald, soot, fluorescent pink, egg yolk – all combined with a childlike glee in a treat for the eyes. Yet for all their chromatic intensity and kinetic energy there is great delicacy to the paintings: blow on then, you sense, and they will distort and disperse as quickly as cloud forms.’