Akira Akira spent most of the past ten years studying, teaching and building his practice in Australia – most recently in Melbourne. But eight months ago, when his partner Sarah Wall was appointed assistant curator at the Len Lye Centre, the native of Kobe, Japan made the move to Taranaki.
Akira’s practice was well-established, and he was teaching at RMIT but he says, “I had been aware of Govett-Brewster for over 10 years, and that was really the only thing I knew about New Plymouth. And, with the exhibition programme, as well as the artist-in-residence programme, I thought ‘this is a great institution… so, yeah, go for it’.”