Ellen Akimoto

‹Having Won›
2015
At the center of Ellen Akimoto's canvases, composed using the technique of collage, is the human being, with all its facets. Akimoto develops her figures on the computer, putting them together from digital snippets of several bodies. In an often unnaturally twisted posture, they have to fit into the narrow, flat pictorial spaces of their interiors, which sometimes seem to tilt the figures out of the picture.

Akimoto does not create portraits, but images of people in a general sense. Their fragmentary process can also be understood as a reference to the trend towards self-optimization, but is above all a metaphor for the contradictions and flexibility of the human being, which absorbs a wide variety of influences.

Artist edition ‹Super!›
2020
On the occasion of the exhibition ‹Super!› (26.01.–26.07.20), an artist edition was being published. The graphic folder–designed by Stefanie Pojar–contains five graphic reproductions by the painters Ellen Akimoto, Mona Borschàr, Ivana de Vivanco, Franca Franz, and Stefanie Pojar. The prints are signed, limited, and numbered. Edition with ten copies. / 2.000,00 euro per portfolio, 1.500,00 euro for members of the Kunstverein Darmstadt. Framing upon request for an additional fee is possible. Please note, that the prints are available only as a bundle.

Ellen Akimoto
lives and works in Leipzig (* 1988 in Westlake Village, USA).

Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts, California State University, USA / Guest student at the Kunsthochschule Mainz / Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, master-class art student of Prof. Annette Schröter.

Exhibitions (selection)
2011: 1078 Gallery, Chico, USA / 2013: Overdose Gallery, Chico, USA / 2017: Galerie Rothamel, Frankfurt am Main / 2019: Galerie Oel-Früh, Hamburg / 2020: Galerie Rothamel, Frankfurt am Main / Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt.

Publications (selection)
Exhibition catalog. Ellen Akimoto. Creamy Feelings Curdle, text: Wolfgang Ullrich, Frankfurt am Main, Galerie Rothamel, Bielefeld: Kerber Verlag, 2020. / Super!, text: Annekathrin Kohout, Darmstadt, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt: Eigenverlag, 2020.