Rusu Aki was born in Miyagi Prefecture in 1976, and graduated from Tama Art University with MFA degree in 2002. While seriously facing the main material of her work, iron, she explores and discovers her own relationship with iron, rust, and welding. By making full use of various methods, including the technique of stacking small iron chips one by one and roasting them, she has created a spatial axis with a compelling form that takes advantage of the time consuming process of rusting and decay. Based on the artist's fresh sensibilities, insatiable inquisitiveness, and intelligence, the poetic works that have been reconstructed while dismantling predetermined views and values are powerful examples of how space changes dramatically due to the presence of matter. By all the senses we receive from Rusu’s work, viewers feel stimulating yet comfortable rhythms.
Selected Exhibitions
2024 Asia Week New York, Onishi Gallery, NY
2023 Solo Exhibition “Procedure, Reverse, Drive,” Takashimaya Gallery,
Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Japan
2022 Contemporary Metalwork Exhibition, Okayama Prefectural
Museum of Art
2021 Kogei Art Fair Kanazawa 2021, Ishikawa
International Kogei Award Toyama, Toyama Prefectural Museum of
Art & Design
2020 Shining Metalwork, The 35th Tansuio Award Exhibition, Sekido
Museum, Tokyo
2019 Exhibition from the Collection, Passion 2020 Heart of Kogei to See
Now, Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, Kogei Wing
Rebirthing Kogei: Contemporary Kogei Exhibition, The University
of Hong Kong
Art Miyagi 2019, Miyagi Prefectural Museum of Art
Selected Awards
2020 International Kogei Award Toyama, First Prize
2017 The 34th Satoh Artcraft Reserch & Scholarship Foundation
Tanshui Award, Grand Prize
2016 The 2nd Kikuchi Kanjitsu Prize
2003 The 11th Japan Contemporary Art Incentive Award by Japan Arts
Foundation
Selected Public Collection
Victoria and Albert Museum | London, UK
Ise Cultural Foundation | Mie, Japan
The Ritz Carlton, Nikko | Tochigi, Japan
Kikuchi Kanjitsu Memorial Tomo Museum | Tokyo, Japan
Yamaguchi Prefectural Hagi Uragami Museum | Japan