Oishi to exhibit at NEoN Festival
Digital arts festival, North East of North, NEoN, has announced the first ever solo UK exhibition by critically-acclaimed Japanese artist Akinori Oishi.
Oishi’s exhibition will showcase his talents for graphic art through multimedia by focusing upon and interpreting the theme of this year’s NEoN, ‘character’.
Chair of the NEoN organising group and Cultural Projects officer for the University of Abertay, Donna Holford-Lovell welcomed the forthcoming exhibition by Oishi: “I met Akinori in New York at the Pictoplasma Contemporary Character Festival 2008. I was so inspired by his passion and commitment that I have been waiting for the ideal opportunity to commission new work by Akinori and to have him speak in the UK. NEoN has provided that opportunity and it is an honour to finally work with him,” said Holford-Lovell.
The exhibition aims to give audiences an insight into Oishi’s interpretation of the concept of ‘Character’ through his use of drawing and typographic language.
The realization of Oishi's exhibition by NEoN has been financially supported by The Japan Foundation to promote the creative industries within Japan.
The NEoN festival takes place in Dundee 8-14 November, 2010.
Oishi said: “I’m excited to experience how the art scene is in the UK and how British people are thinking about digital media at the NEoN festival. The most interesting thing about participating in a festival is communicating with friendly people and native audiences.”
Oishi began his career by studying Fine Arts at the Kyoto City University of Art and the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, IAMAS, Japan.
Oishi has since received international critical acclaim for his work including the MILIA, International Multimedia Fair award in France in 2001, working with French creative design studio Team cHmAn, and subsequent invitations to teach and guest-lecture at the Tama Art University in Tokyo and the Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne, ECAL in Switzerland respectively.
Oishi also previously collaborated with Pictoplasma.