Online exhibition

Shuttling between the materials of stone and steel, the works of the longtime professor of sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe explore the spectrum of fullness and emptiness, heaviness and balance, geometric regularity and irregularities and breaks set with great mastery.

Akiyama's rootedness in the Zen tradition of his homeland, but also his familiarity with 20th century European sculpture, namely Constantin Brancusi and Eduardo Chillida, made him an important representative of contemporary art. Especially as a stone sculptor, he created unique works in the field of monumental sculpture, which, for all their reduction, promote a depth of thought and an awareness of emptiness or the absence of something, which is by no means to be confused with nothingness in the occidental sense. But also in his steel works and in model-like small sculptures he combines contemplative silence, life-affirming presence and a precision that is unparalleled. Akiyama's work revolves around elementary references such as location or movement in space, but also leaves enough emotional access points to trace the essence of the material, but also the human being in his position in relation to the world.

About 20, partly large-format works provide a good insight into the work of the artist.