Koshiro Akiyama, born in Tokyo in 1994, is an artist who studied at Camberwell College of Arts and Tokyo University of the Arts, where he specialised in Fine Art Painting and traditional Japanese-style painting. Akiyama has previously exhibited with us at RHODES during the London Art Fair in 2022 and features in our current group show ‘Group Chat’. We will be welcoming Akiyama back to RHODES in the Autumn, with his debit solo exhibtion (more details coming soon).
Drawing on his cultural heritage, Akiyama employs Japanese painting techniques, working with vibrant pigments and striking colour palettes to create illusionistic, dreamlike worlds. By mixing his paints with animal glue, he creates textured, layered surfaces on the canvas, adding depth to a flat, two-dimensional space.
His works currently exhibited at the gallery as part of Group Chat are Puddle (2024) and At the Skirt of Mountain (2025). Across these paintings, Akiyama continues to explore intimate, atmospheric spaces through fluid brushstrokes that dominate the canvas, producing compositions that are bold yet subtle. His paintings are designed in a cohesive manner, the soft, organic forms and delicate colour harmonies collectively representing utopian ideals and an underlying sense of morbidity.
145.5 x 112 cm
For viewers, Akiyama’s paintings hold a quiet tension oscillating between serenity and unease, private narrative and ambiguity. While his work acknowledges profound emotion, it is the tranquil landscapes he creates that draws the viewer’s eye inward, dissolving the boundary between surface and depth.
In the coming months, his collection will expand in our gallery, including more figurative work. While Akiyama is already recognised for his atmospheric depictions of environmental landscapes, his portrayals of the human form carry the same delicacy and intimacy. The raw, organic contours of the body are rendered in a way that compliments their delicate beauty, creating a cohesive aesthetic across his entire practice.
We look forward to welcoming Akiyama back to RHODES very soon for his next solo exhibition. Email info@rhodescontemporaryart.com for more information.
