Layers, color and light, place and time—
Randy Akers
“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.”
scars, gravity, and paint
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, 2023
Hibiscus
7343 Skidaway
Victorian Worker's Cottage
Estill
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. Art residencies include Vashon Artist Residency, Washington, 2025 and 2023; NG Art Creative Residency, Provence, France, 2024; JOYA: arte + ecologica, Spain, 2022; Cill Rialaig, Ireland, 2021; Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Wyoming 2019 and 2015; Foundation OBRAS, Evoramonte, Portugal, 2017. Akers' solo 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. Work is now in the collection of the Commercial Bank and Trust in Memphis.
In his previous career, Akers directed and designed international television commercials, movie titles, music videos, and print for Fortune 500 companies. He has been affiliated with Duck Soup (LA), 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 (NY), the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and Cazenovia College. He received his M.F.A. at SCAD; B.F.A, Chouinard Art Institute, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Additional academic work at Art Center College of Design, California State University Northridge, University of Oregon. Akers served on the board of Art Rise Savannah and Arts Georgia advisory council.
Randy Akers by Simon Beckmann
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Recommendation
“I am a professional visual artist working full time since 2014 and living on Skidaway Island, Georgia. I had met Robin Reynolds in the MFA Grad Program at SCAD (Savannah) and we reconnected about 8 years ago on Instagram. Robin is a highly successful painter living and working in Massachusetts and told me about a start-up mag called Juniper Rag. I responded to an open call and was received nicely with all the appropriate write-ups, advocacy, and social media plugs. At this point in my career, I was only interested in competitions and museum shows that were regional...not galleries. Sales were limited and word of mouth. As I moved forward I started expanding to connecting to national Galleries in Florida, Colorado, Memphis, Hilton Head and now California. Juniper Rag became the impetus to measure audience response to my work and through that encouraged me to branch out and even focus on more specific content. They always featured my upcoming shows and new work consistently on Social Media as well. The Magazine founders have always been outstanding advocates for the Arts and their reach extends to the West Coast. I have become Instagram "friends" with several of the artists featured on Juniper Rag. The editors also did a piece on a Residency I attended in Ireland, which became sort of an international outreach. I am pretty proactive in my approach for new audiences and Juniper Rag has been the positive impetus to make many of those needed connections. My relationship with Juniper Rag and the founders has been very organic, but also something I highly value and treasure. It will be very interesting to see where they and their audience go from here."
—Randy Akers
