Akiko Kotani's fiber-based work spans over forty years and is an homage to what is traditionally labelled as "women's work". Inspired by watching her mom knit as a child, she developed an early interest in indigenous craft traditions. She later studied fundamental weaving techniques from renowned Guatemalan weaver, Rafaela Godinez, an experience she describes as life-changing.

 

After pursuing her MFA at the Tyler School of Art in 1977, she taught fiber and drawing at the Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. Her early work consisted of woven tapestries but over time, her practice has evolved toward large-scale, site-specific crochet installations using repurposed plastic materials.

 

Kotani's work fuses references to women's domestic labor with broader meditations on nature, balance, repetition and simplicity. Through this process she channels Buddhist ideals of mindfulness and presence, transforming ordinary materials into quiet, powerful reflections on resilience and beauty of everyday gestures.

 

Akiko Kotani was born in Waipahu, Hawaii received her BFA in painting from the University of Hawaii and her MFA in textiles from the Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA. Now residing in Gulfport, FL she spent her former years as Professor Emerita of Art at Slippery Rock University, PA and two years at Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her work is in the permanent collections of several private and public museums including the Cleveland Museum of Art, OH and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

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