vol.139
Akiko Horio Exhibition
Reconstructing the World
2022.7.23 Sat - 8.7 Sun
Open : 13:00 - 19:00
Closed : Tue, Wed
Akiko Horio was born in Tokushima City, Tokushima Prefecture, in 1937, the year the Sino-Japanese War began, and spent her impressionable girlhood in a rural village during the post-war years of the Pacific War. She began making art at the age of 25 in 1962 and was introduced to Gutai art, and as a member of the Gutai Art Association [1968 - 1972, until the association was dissolved], she interacted with a variety of artists who succeeded in same periods. Even after the dissolution of the association, until today, at the age of 85, she take care of her daily chores and participation in society, while at the same time her pursuit of beauty and her own discoveries, surprises and joys in her daily work overlap with her desire and prayers for life the equation of the this world.
The "Akiko Horio Today" exhibition held at the Nishiwaki city Okanoyama Museum of Art in Hyogo Prefecture last year (2021) revealed a view of the world in which works quietly and lightly echoed each other with a delicate melody throughout the space in the extremely innovative architectural space of the 1980s by Arata Isozaki. Her daily life solidified her expression, and the small works became one with the space, and I was deeply moved. With the kind permission of the Nishiwaki city Okanoyama Museum of Art, we are pleased to introduce the world of artist, Akiko Horio. In the following, I would like to preface the exhibition with the words from an interview with Akiko Horio at a recent art exhibition, quoted as the title of this exhibition.
"I make art for myself first and foremost. With my eyes and hands, I make what I want to make. If possible, I want to create something strong, deep and beautiful in my own way. Whenever I see a beautiful flower blooming on a weed, I want to create something like this. I am not aiming for simplicity, which is often said about my work, but rather trying to ‘Reconstructing the world' with the materials, colors, line themselves, and my works are how it naturally came about."
('Akiko Horio Today' exhibition / Nishiwaki City Okanoyama Museum of Art, extract from interview with Akiko Horio)
Akiko Horio
Artist
Born in Tokushima City in 1937, Horio graduated from the Tokushima University Higher School of Nursing in 1959. She began creating works around 1962, exhibited at the Gutai Newcomers Exhibition in 1967, became a member of the Gutai Art Association in 1968, and a member of the Ashiya City Art Association in 1970. After the dissolution of the Gutai in 1972, she continued to hold solo exhibitions at the Shinanobashi Gallery in Osaka and group exhibitions in Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. She developed works that captured the effects of light reflection and shading by combining everyday materials such as wood, paper, mirrors, a piece of wire and a line drawn with a pen. In later years, she also devoted herself to animal welfare and was active as a representative of the Japan Anti-Vivisection Association (JAVA) in 1988 and the Hyogo branch of the All Life In Viable Environment (ALIVE) (1995-2013).
In 2019, the exhibition 'The World of Sadaharu and Akiko Horio' held at the Kobe Watakushi Museum of Art. In 2021, 'Akiko Horio Today' exhibition at the Nishiwaki City Okanoyama Museum of Art. In 2022, she will participate in the exhibition 'Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning: Our Wellbeing since the Pandemic' at the Mori Art Museum, which is being held from the end of June 2022.
Major exhibitions
1999 The Beauty of Tranquillity - Ashiya City Museum of Art
2000 The Art of Ashiya - Ashiya City Museum of Art
2003 Attention to the Waremono - Ashiya City Museum of Art
2004 Gutai Retrospective - Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art
2005 Women of the Avant-garde 1950-1975 - Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts
2012 "Gutai" - 18 Years of Japanese Avant-garde - The National Art Center, Tokyo
2020 "Ashiya no Jikan" (Time in Ashiya) Grand Collection Exhibition - Ashiya City Museum of Art
2021 "GUTAI Now or Never" Gutai Collection at the Prefectural Museum of Art - Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art
2021 "Akiko Horio Today" - Nishiwaki Okanoyama Museum of Art, Hyogo Prefecture
2022 "Listening to the Sound of the Earth Turning: Well-being after the Pandemic" - Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
