Akiko Kurihara (b.1975) was born and raised in Japan. She completed comprehensive studies in trade jewellery the Yamanashi Institute of Gemology and Jewelry Art in Kofu, before studying contemporary jewellery at the prestigious Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry in Tokyo (1998-1999), where she went on to teach until 2004. Following a semester as a guest at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, with Professor Otto Künzli, she went on to complete her 6 year Diploma there (2004 to 2010) before relocating to Milan in 2011, where she continues to live and work.
Akiko Kurihara makes limited and ongoing editions, each piece impeccably crafted, minimal but profoundly accomplished. Some pieces (those Akiko advises we don’t feed) have sprung into the world with their personalities fully formed, playfully inviting us to connect with and wear them. Others encapsulate a simple idea or observation; a meeting of two often logical but unremarked on connections. A pile of oxidised silver chain resembles cigarette smoke. A silver alloy can be visually and literally broken down to its relative components. A ring might be autonomous enough to envy you wearing it. A nail might grow roots if left long enough in a wall. An earring hook is a question mark. Earth and moon are only a chain’s length apart. Yet others seek ingeniously to trick us, balancing upside down or changing as we interact with them.
Akiko Kurihara’s work is firmly rooted in the traditions of classical jewellery but draws its ideas from everywhere. It is full of wit and curiosity, communicated with the clarity and flair of a master technician.
Akiko Kuriahara has exhibited extensively worldwide, winning the Stipendien des Bayer Staatsministeriums für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst für Ausländische Studierende, Germany in 2007 and the 27th International silver art competition -Illusion-, the 2nd prize and the Joachim Sokólski Award, Poland in 2018. Her work is found in public and private collections including the Alice and Louis Koch Ring Collection in Switzerland and The Gallery of Art in Legnica, Poland.