American artist Ellen Akimoto (b. 1988) has opened her second solo exhibition with Berlin-based Galerie Judin, titled “Everybody’s in the Room.” The show features a body of new work exploring reality, human relationships, and the interplay between figuration and abstraction. Its centerpiece is a monumental six-panel painting spanning nearly 40 feet, which incorporates the physical gallery space as part of the artwork. The exhibition will later travel to Kunstverein Ulm in September. In an interview, Akimoto discusses themes of inside and outside, ghosts of ordinary objects, and the conceptual starting point of the show, which she describes as a culmination of processes developed over the past year.
The exhibition matters because it marks a significant milestone for a rising artist whose work challenges perceptions of reality and illusion. Akimoto’s ambitious titular painting, which took a year to complete, represents a bold exploration of ordered violence giving way to chaotic peace, reflecting broader contemporary concerns about social interaction, emotional states, and the subconscious networks connecting people and objects. The show’s subsequent travel to a German kunstverein underscores growing institutional interest in her practice, positioning her as an artist to watch in the international contemporary art scene.