Nina Akamu

Nina Akamu is a Japanese American artist that was born in Midwest City, Oklahoma. She is the Vice President of the National Sculpture Society.

Nina Akamu was born in 1955 in Midwest City, Oklahoma. She lived in Hawaii and East Asia as a child due to her father serving in the Air Force. At the age of 10 her family moved to Japan, where her passion for horseback riding was instilled (which would eventually lead to a passion for sculpting horses).

In 1969 her family was transferred back to the United States, moving to Dover, Delaware, where Akamu graduated high school. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1977. However, she found her passion for sculpture in the final year of her education.

Akamu trained under American painter Joseph Sheppard in Florence, Italy in the late 1970s. After furthering her painting skills and knowledge she moved into sculpture full-time, becoming a member of the National Sculpture Society in 1981. Moving to Pietrasanta, Italy in 1984, Akamu proceeded to expand on her skills and catalog of sculpture work.

Leonardo da Vinci's Horse, Inc. (LDVHI) contracted Tallix Art Foundry in 1977 to cast the horse, and suggested bringing Nina Akamu on board to improve upon the Dent-Herrick horse.

Returning to the United States after 12 years in Italy, she eventually moved to Beacon, New York to work on a full-scale sculpture of Leonardo's horse, which became her most notable work to date, dedicating the piece in Milan, Italy and the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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