Akio Onishi
OVERVIEW
1996 Born in Okayama Prefecture
2019 BA in Faculty of Design, Kyoto Seika University
Currently based in Tokyo
Onishi graduated from the Faculty of Design of Kyoto Seika University. While working in the timeless genre of portraiture, he skillfully incorporates the anonymity of contemporary society and the visual imagery of consumed objects into his work, creating paintings and video works that allude to the loneliness inherent in a communication-deprived world. Onishi starts off his creative process by printing out freely accessible photographs of various people from the internet. He then adds random creases to the images by hand, photographs them, projects them onto a computer monitor, and finally, turns them into canvas paintings. The artist does not depict identifiable subjects—instead, he deliberately obscures visual characteristics like gender and nationality before bringing the figures to life on canvas.
Awards
2022 NEWVIEW AWARDS 2022 ULTRA GRAPHIC Prize, Japan
2020 Shell Art Award 2020, nominated, Japan
2018 CAF Award 2018, nominated, Japan
HISTORY
2023
“O” GALLERY KTO, Tokyo Japan
2022
“I’m tired” GALLERY KTO, Tokyo, Japan
“precious people (not)” BD Gallery, Aichi, Japan
2021
“still life” GALLERY KTO, Tokyo, Japan
“paper craft” KUNST ART, Kyoto, Japan
“paper craft (human)” GALLERY KTO, Tokyo, Japan
2020
“live coverage” KUNST ART, Kyoto, Japan
2023
“Sky of the beginning” TAV GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
2022
“P.O.N.D. 2022 IN DOUBT” PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, Tokyo, Japan
“Position where torsion meets” YOD Editions, Osaka, Japan
2021
“The beginning called Second Attack” VOU 1F, Kyoto, Japan
“Dis-display” CALM&PUNK GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
“FOG AREA” excube, Osaka, Japan
“Kazu Nakagawa Traveling Exhibition in Tokyo” GALLERY KTO, Tokyo, Japan
“Prologue Ⅻ” GALLERY ART POINT, Tokyo, Japan
“untouched friction” Art Lab TOKYO, Tokyo, Japan
“YY-U25 vol.2” ygion, Kyoto, Japan
2020
“VIEWS” River Coffee & Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
“HANARART 2020” Takino Residence Town House (Tenri), Nara, Japan
“Grand Cross” Kyoto Seika University Main Building Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
“Colony” MEDIA SHOP | gallery 2, Kyoto, Japan
“YY-U25” ygion, Kyoto, Japan
“Ikumi Nakayama & Akio Onishi Two-person Exhibition” GALLERY KTO, Tokyo, Japan
“Shell Art Award Exhibition 2020” The National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan
2019
“Kyoto Seika University Exhibition 2019” Kyoto Seika University, Kyoto, Japan
“Astral Floating” Gallery Lv.10, Osaka, Japan
“Azumakudari” rusu, Tokyo, Japan
“Solitude and Solidarity” PRIVATE, Tokyo, Japan
“ALLNIGHT HAPS 2019 final ’Kangaru’” HAPS office 1F, Kyoto, Japan
“Secret market of art movies ―winter market” BUCKLE KOBO, Tokyo, Japan
“SEIKA JACK” Kyoto Seika University GALLLERY FLEUR, Kyoto, Japan
“CAF Award 2018” Daikanyama Hillside Terrace, Tokyo, Japan
“TOKYO（Tokyo edition）” Nakano meee, Tokyo, Japan
“TOKYO（Kyoto edition）” yuge, Kyoto, Japan
Yusaku Maezawa Collection
WORKS
NEWS
New Exhibition : Akio Onishi -persona-
N project is pleased to present -persona-, a solo exhibition by Akio Onishi, from July 7 (Fri) to July 30 (Sun), 2023. Akio Onishi (b. 1996) graduated from the Faculty of Design of Kyoto Seika University and is currently based in Tokyo. While working in the timeless genre of portraiture, he skillfully incorporates the anonymity