SCAF – Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation,
in partnership with Asialink, The University of Melbourne,
warmly invites you to attend the launch of

Akio Makigawa 

a book celebrating the artist’s life and work

on Thursday, 25 September 2014
6–8 pm
This monumental publication (fourteen years in the making) will be launched by
Dr Michael Brand, Director, the Art Gallery of New South Wales

at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation
16-20 Goodhope Street
Paddington

RSVP by Thursday, 18 September 2014
02 9331 1112 or bookings@sherman-scaf.org.au

The publication covers Akio’s life and work from 1978 to 1999 and includes a foreword by former AGNSW Director, Edmund Capon AM, OBE, an essay by art historian Bruce Adams, texts by writer Jackie Cooper and Haig Beck, Professor of Architecture, The University of Melbourne, and a special commentary by Akio Makigawa.

Copies of Akio Makigawa, signed by Carlier Makigawa, will be available for sale.

It is rare for a monograph about an Australian artist to be so lavishly and lovingly prepared as this. In making his own book, Akio Makigawa had a simple objective: to tell his story as a sculptor and to explain his work. He engaged friends to collaborate with him: editors Jackie Cooper and Haig Beck, graphic designer Garry Emery, photographer John Gollings. Akio saw the finished text before he died in December 1999. But it took fourteen years before this magnificent book was finally realised, with Carlier Makigawa taking charge of its publication. The book is Akio’s beautiful legacy.
– Jackie Cooper, Editor of UME, an international review of architecture

Akio Makigawa (1948-1999), Japanese-born and Melbourne-based was an exceptional sculptor. Akio worked as a lecturer at Charles Sturt University in NSW as well as the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, and in 1999 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts at RMIT University, Melbourne. His solo exhibitions include Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth; Sherman Galleries, Sydney; and Christine Abrahams and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Public collections include the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia.

Carlier Makigawa, wife to Akio Makigawa, moved to Melbourne in 1981, completing a Masters in Fine Art at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in 1987. Since 1981 she has had 29 solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions in both Australia and overseas (Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne; Sherman Galleries Hargrave, Sydney; Inax Gallery, Tokyo, Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, and Galerie Ra, Amsterdam). Public collections include the National Gallery of Australia, Victoria and Albert Museum (United Kingdom), and Kyoto Museum of Modern Art (Japan).

Image:
Akio Makigawa, Elements and Being, 1989
Commission ASER Adelaide and Stations Environment Redevelopment
Photo: John Gollings