Kelly Akashi: Artist Talk

Kelly Akashi gives an artist talk at UC San Diego on Thursday, October 15, from 5:00 to 6:50 PM. She's the 2026 Longenecker-Roth Artist in Residence at the university's Department of Visual Arts, an annual program started in 2016 that honors Martha Longenecker-Roth, the founder of the Mingei Art Museum in Balboa Park.

Akashi was born in Los Angeles in 1983. She earned her BFA from Otis College of Art & Design and her MFA from the University of Southern California, and she's also studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. These days she's Core Faculty in Grad Art at ArtCenter College of Design.

Her work centers on the impermanence of the natural world, and she works across a wide range of materials to get there: glass-blowing, flame-working, casting, candle-making, and stone carving. More recently, her art has taken on a personal weight. She was among the thousands who lost their homes in the 2025 Eaton wildfire in Los Angeles, and she's been processing that tragedy through work that asks about home, belonging, and rest.

Her recent solo shows have been at MOCA San Diego and the Henry Art Gallery, and she's done public commissions too, including an installation for JFK International Airport's New Terminal One. The talk is at the Mandeville Center, Room B-202, 9390 Mandeville Ln, La Jolla, CA 92093. It's free.