Nina Akamu

Nina Akamu is a Japanese American artist that was born in Midwest City, Oklahoma. She is the Vice President of the National Sculpture Society.

Early Years

Nina Akamu was born in 1955 in Midwest City, Oklahoma. She lived in Hawaii and East Asia as a child due to her father serving in the Air Force. At the age of 10 her family moved to Japan, where her passion for horseback riding was instilled (which would eventually lead to a passion for sculpting horses).

Education

In 1969 her family was transferred back to the United States, moving to Dover, Delaware, where Akamu graduated high school. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1977. However, she found her passion for sculpture in the final year of her education.^[1]

Career

Akamu trained under American painter Joseph Sheppard in Florence, Italy in the late 1970s. After furthering her painting skills and knowledge she moved into sculpture full-time, becoming a member of the National Sculpture Society in 1981. Moving to Pietrasanta, Italy in 1984, Akamu proceeded to expand on her skills and catalog of sculpture work.^[1]

Leonardo's Horse

Leonardo da Vinci's Horse, Inc. (LDVHI) contracted Tallix Art Foundry in 1977 to cast the horse, and suggested bringing Nina Akamu on board to improve upon the Dent-Herrick horse.

Returning to the United States after 12 years in Italy, she eventually moved to Beacon, New York to work on a full-scale sculpture of Leonardo's horse, which became her most notable work to date, dedicating the piece in Milan, Italy and the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan.^[1]

After several months, Nina Akamu determined that the original model could not be salvaged and concluded that a completely new sculpture needed to be executed.

One of the two full size casts at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.

Leonardo had made numerous small sketches of horses to help illustrate his notes about the complex procedures for molding and casting the sculpture. But his notes were far from systematic, and none of the sketches points to the final position of the horse, with no single definitive drawing of the statue. Akamu researched multiple information sources to gain insight into the original sculptor's intentions. She studied both Leonardo's notes and drawings of the horse and those of other projects he was working on. She reviewed his thoughts on anatomy, painting, sculpture and natural phenomena. Her research expanded to include the teachers who had influenced Leonardo. Akamu also studied Iberian horse breeds, such as the Andalusian, which were favored by the Sforza stables in the late 15th century.

Two full-size casts were made of Akamu's 24-foot (7.3 m) design. One was placed at the Hippodrome de San Siro in Milan. The other is at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, a botanical garden and sculpture park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, paid for by billionaire Frederik Meijer.

A smaller replica – 12 feet (3.7 m) – has been placed in downtown Allentown's Community Art Park adjacent to the Baum School of Art, in honor of Charles Dent. A bronze replica – 8 feet (2.4 m) – was installed 15 September 2001 at Piazza della Libertà in Vinci, Italy, the birth town of Leonardo.

Memorial to Japanese-American Patriotism in World War II

Japanese Crane Monument at the National Japanese American Memorial

Akamu's create the statue on the Memorial to Japanese-American Patriotism in World War II, that show two Grus japonensis bird. This work is located at Louisiana Avenue and D Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C. The memorial commemorates Japanese American war involvement, veterans and patriotism during World War II, as well as those held in Japanese American internment camps.^[2]

Akamu's grandfather, on her mother's side, was arrested in Hawaii during the internment program. He was sent to a relocation camp on Sand Island in Pearl Harbor. Suffering from diabetes upon his internment, he died of a heart attack three months into his imprisonment. This family connection, combined with growing up for a time in Hawaii where she fished with her father at Pearl Harbor and the erection of a Japanese American war memorial near her home in Massa, Italy, inspired a strong connection to the memorial and its creation.^[3]

Actual life

Currently living in Rhinebeck, New York, Akamu serves as Vice President of the National Sculpture Society. The cranes and memorial she created was awarded the Henry Hering Award by the National Sculpture Society in 2002.^[1]

See also

• Memorial to Japanese-American Patriotism in World War II
• National Sculpture Society
• Women artists

References