Yoko Akino

Yoko Akino was born in Kyoto, Japan, and studied drawing from a young age. Having spent four years as a draftsperson in an architect’s practice in Tokyo she returned to Kyoto in 1991, where she produced a collection of line drawings incorporating gauche. Akino moved to Dublin 1996, and is a member of Graphic Studio Dublin. She is widely recognised as one of Ireland’s leading printmakers.

Akino was honored with the O’Sullivan Graphic Supplies prize for ‘Best Print’ at the RHA annual exhibition, 2007. In 2008 she participated in a two-person show called ‘Is this real?’ at the Graphic Studio Gallery in Dublin, and a Graphic Studio Dublin group show at the National Gallery of Ireland, entitled ‘Revelation’. Yoko Akino uses the principles of minimalism and stillness to render her works as dreamlike, dissociative narrative, at once both haunting and compelling.

Yoko Akino is surrounded by views of the ocean at her home on the Cooley Peninsiula, and is drawn to the dramatic shapes of the coastline. Her pared down expanses of vivid colour, adjacent to detailed blocks of patterned lines, represent views from the east and west coasts of Ireland, that are influenced by her memories of the Honshu coastline, between the Japanese and Pacific Ocean.