Akira Iha
Original Abstract Paintings
Akira Iha
Limited Edition Abstract Prints
About The Artist
Akira Iha has been creating abstract art Hawaii for over 30 years. His abstract paintings have been featured at a number of national galleries. Akira Iha has also shown at The Contemporary Museum of Honolulu, Honolulu Academy of Arts, First Hawaiian Center, Schaefer International Gallery at the Maui Arts, Hawaii State Foundation of the Arts and Cultural Center and at the Japanese Art Center of New York. Akira Iha’s abstract artwork also resides in a number of private and public international collections.
Artist Statement
Over the last several years I traveled throughout Japan visiting numerous Zen temples, tea houses 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 tea house as well as the meditative properties of the tea house ceremony. Nijiriguchi, the title of several of my abstract paintings, directly translates to mean “The threshold” or opening of the tea house. As an abstract artist, my mixed media paintings are built by multiple layers of paint on sheets of paper on wood panel. Then, using a reductive process, paint is 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. This minimalist paintings lets the viewer’s eye be drawn into the composition as if entering a structure. Light seems to emanate from within through the exposed areas of submerged color.
Artist Akira Iha represented by Paia Contemporary Gallery – Hawaii Gallery
| Born Okinawa, Japan | Resident Maui, Hawaii | Education Colorado Mountain College, CO Art Students League, NY |
Select Group Exhibitions
07-13 Paia Contemporary Gallery, Paia, HI
2007 10th Anniversary Exhibition at First Hawaiian Center, Honolulu, HI
88-13 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.
