Artist
アーティスト
OKUNAKA Akihito
Japan
Profile
Akihito Okunaka was born in 1981 in Kyoto Prefecture, where he is currently based. He is an artist, co-director of AOIoA, and head of the Experiential Art Course at the Yamashiro Cultural Center in Kizugawa City, Kyoto Prefecture.
After graduating from the Shizuoka University Department of Education, Okunaka specialized in art education for children and worked as an instructor at the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art and at facilities for disabled people, teaching art and play. Okunaka then studied modern and contemporary theory before becoming an artist. He has received grants from the Nomura Foundation and the Asahi Shimbun Foundation, among others, and has dedicated himself to study in France, Korea, and China as a research fellow. With the theme of pursuing the dynamics of people, things, and matters through the lens of water, air, and light, he has held many workshops at regional art spaces around Japan and exhibited large-scale experiential artworks both domestically and internationally.
Main career experience:
2024/WHAT MUSEUM Akihito Okunaka“Synesthesia –Crossing the senses with art–”, 2023/Gifu Art Award IN THE CUBE 2023 Jury Prize / Akiko Kitamura Award / Yoko Terauchi Award, 2022/Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival, 2021/Kitakyushu Future Creative Art Festival ART for SDGs, 2019/LUXELAKES A4 Art Museum ARIE International Residence Program Selected/The Nomura Foundation, Grant for Arts and Culture in the second half of 2019, 2017/Rokko Meets Art Organizer's Special Prize, Moscow International Biennial Parallel Program《Yearning for The Sky》, Understanding with Art! The Identity of Air, 2016/Kizugawa Art Grand Prix, etc.
