Akiko Usami
Sugarhouse Work/Live Residency Programme
2007
Akiko Usami is a British-Japanese artist living and working in London. Her paintings are an attempt to transform the rhythm, movement and sensation evoked by sound into a tangible and physical object. The repeated lines characteristic of her work attempt to produce a calm, melodic – almost hypnotic – effect on the viewer. Akiko has said that her intention is to use a controlled spontaneity to build up sensation, retaining qualities of the handmade and the physical activity of painting.
Selected exhibitions include: Island Series, Tsuru, London (2009); Unnatural Worlds, Casson Gallery, Eastbourne (2008), This is About You, Whitecross Gallery, London (2007); Water, Sartorial Contemporary Art, London (2006); Contintental Breakfast, Maribor Art Gallery, Slovenia (2006).
Sugarhouse Work/Live Residency Programme
Based on the model of the Fire Station programme, the Sugarhouse Work/Live Residency Programme was designed in response to the
lack of affordable space in London for artists to work and live in. The project
was developed in partnership with Solon Co-operative Housing Services
and the Boss Group and received funding from the Housing Corporation and
Stratford Development Partnership.