Paia Contemporary Gallery

Akira Iha

Original Artwork

Limited Edition Prints

About The Artist
Akira Iha’s work has been the feature of exhibitions in Hawaii, Vail Colorado and New York City; including shows by The Contemporary Museum of Honolulu, Honolulu Academy of Arts, the First Hawaiian Center, the Schaefer International Gallery and the Japanese Art Center of New York. His paintings reside in private and public collections all over the world.

Artist Statement
Over the last several years I traveled throughout Japan visiting numerous Zen temples, the teahouses and famous historical ruins. My paintings describe the elegant beauty of simplicity and tranquility I found in these places, inspired by the formal exterior and interior structures of the Japanese teahouse as well as the meditative properties of the teahouse ceremony. Nijiriguchi, the title of several of my works, directly translates to mean the threshold or opening of the teahouse. I use Multiple layers of acrylic paint on sheets of paper and then adhere them to a wood panel. Then, using a reductive process, pigments are removed by incising lines and sanding the paint to expose parts of the under layers of color. This technique creates a geometric structure with a subtle sense of space. The viewer’s eye is drawn into the composition as if entering a structure. Light seems to emanate from within through the exposed areas of submerged color.

Select Group Exhibitions
07-11 Paia Contemporary Gallery, Paia, HI
2007 10th Anniversary Exhibition at First Hawaiian Center, Honolulu, HI
88-11 Art Maui, Schaefer International Gallery Maui, HI, USA
88-04 Artists of Hawaii, Honolulu Academy of Arts, HI, USA.
2000 90 Degrees Art Show, The Contemporary Museum of Honolulu, First Hawaiian Center, HI, USA.
2000 90 Degrees Art Show, Schaefer International Gallery Maui, HI, USA.