Randy Akers: Site and Structure

I drive down the road and see a place or a name that triggers an immediate response. These locations are always in rough condition: messy, dirty, rusty and in forms of disrepair. These sites have been either a source of conflict, social unrest, economic despair, or oppression. A visual record is made of those sites. I always have to look at the underbelly of those places and convey it in my work. Usually halfway through the process, the paint takes over. Color has its own direction and new variations suddenly appear. Chisels, electric sanders, grinders, drywall knives, and razor blades are brought out to redefine the image. Marks disturb the surface. Re-dos are evident, occurring over and over again. Construction lines show scars of false beginnings. Structures stretch or shrink, windows and doorways are added or subtracted, darkened or lightened. Shapes are reduced. Skies are bigger, smaller, grayer or brighter. The primitive scratch marks become the foundation to begin the layout procedure. The applied paint refuses to stay in the lines. Colors bleed, scar, overlap, spread and stain. The marks are strong and expressionistic and gouge the surface. The pigment gets lost in the crevices. The surface clamors for evidence of the human hand. The process is a struggle and can occur over a period of several months, with layers and layers of decisions and paint applications.

Randy Akers

Skidaway Island, Georgia,

2021

About the Artist

Randy Akers is a visual artist working on Skidaway Island, Georgia. He has shown at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, University of New Mexico's Harwood Foundation, Brownsville Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Anchorage Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Valdosta University, Masur Museum of Art, SUNY Genesseo, Florida A&M University, Marietta / Cobb Museum of Art, LaGrange Art Museum, Ormond Art Museum, and Maryland Federation of Art among others. Akers was honored with arts residencies at Cill Rialaig, Ireland for 2021, Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Wyoming in 2019 and 2015 and Foundation OBRAS, Portugal in 2017. His one-person show, Road to Canaan, was included in the VIVA Florida 500. Work was selected by the Office of the Governor for The Art of Georgia, sponsored by the Georgia Council of the Arts. Three paintings were chosen for the movie, The Poison Rose, starring John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, and Brendan Fraser. Solo upcoming shows will be at J/Costello Gallery, Hilton Head, SC; Gertrude Herbert Institute of the Arts in Augusta, GA; Greenville Center for the Arts, Greenville, SC. In his past career, Akers directed and designed international television commercials, movie titles, music videos, and print for Fortune 500 companies. He has been affiliated with Curious Pictures (NY), R/GA Digital Studios (NY), Broadcast Arts, (NY), Yarra Films (Singapore), Kessler-Irish Films (Toronto), and AFI Films (Miami). Akers is a member of the Director's Guild of America, the Broadcast Design Association, and served as an advisor to the Delphi Conference exploring the convergence of art and technology. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts, the Savannah College of Art and Design, and Cazenovia College. He received his M.F.A. at the Savannah College of Art and Design; B.F.A, Chouinard Art Institute, CalArts; additional academic work at Art Center College of Design, California State University Northridge and University of Oregon. Akers served on the board of Art Rise Savannah and Arts Georgia advisory council.