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Yasuaki Onishi studied sculpture at University of Tsukuba and Kyoto City University of Arts. His sculptures are made from a mix of synthetic materials.
Onishi uses boxes to map out the eventual shape of his piece, draping a sheet of plastic over them. He attaches the plastic sheet from above using strands of glue, until the boxes can safely be removed without much altering the “landscape”. In this sense, the process and finished installation look completely different.
His work has been exhibited in solo shows across Japan and abroad, and included in both Ways of Worldmaking in 2011 and National Museum of Art, Osaka.
In 2010, Onishi was the recipient of a United States-Japan Foundation Fellowship that included a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, as well as a grant from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Inc., New York.
His most recent solo exhibition in the United States was in 2012 at the The Marlin and Regina Miller Gallery at Kutztown University in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
"Onishi’s work really brings attention to the structure and the form of the negative space. I really appreciate the absence of form… as with Rachel Whiteread's work, the object is missing. In Onishi’s work what is often left is an index of the object."
