Artist Talk: Kelly Akashi

Come hear from Kelly Akashi, one of three artists invited to make a proposal for a site specific outdoor artwork for the new WCMA museum building opening in 2027.

We have invited three artists to submit proposals for a newly commissioned artwork to be installed on the grounds of Williams College Museum of Art’s new building. Each artist will come to campus this fall to share their work in a public artist talk in the Williams Inn Ballroom.

Following the artists’ visits, and the submission of proposals in early 2026, one artist and design will be chosen. The selected artist will return to campus in the spring to meet with the campus community and work towards the final concept and design, with the commissioned artwork to be installed in the east meadows, facing toward campus, in late 2027.

Kelly Akashi was born in 1983 in Los Angeles. She received a BFA from Otis College of Art & Design in 2006 and an MFA from the University of Southern California in 2014. She also studied at the prestigious Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste (Städelschule) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 2010. Akashi has been chosen as the Artist in Residence at Pilchuck Glass School for 2025. Recent solo exhibitions include Kelly Akashi–Converging Figures, Fondazione Furla Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan, Italy (13 September–December 8 2024) and Kelly Akashi: Encounters at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, USA (September 30, 2023–June 15, 2024) and her 10-year survey, Formations, which began at the San José Museum of Art in 2022, travelled to the Frye Art Museum in Seattle and then to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, through 2024.