JAMESAKERS.NET

My name is James Akers, and I am an artist currently based in Brooklyn, New York where with my partner, Ali Feeney, run a neon fabrication company called Nebula Neon. I grew up skateboarding, and hacking video games in Maryland before receiving a BFA from Alfred University in 2015. I get bored easily, but love working with glass and neon. My Artwork has been shown in museums, galleries, fairs and houses around the world. 

In the neon shop I have fabricated tubes that served in major ad campaigns both in Manhattan and around the world. Weather fabricating for events, TV, retail, or for artists I enjoy being the uncredited (but well paid) essential fabricator. Artistically, I make tubes that bend the rules of commercial reproduction, but often take advantage of commercial capabilities. The commercial neon jobs and artistic neon projects have a symbiotic relationship- both technically, financially and conceptually.

Outside of the glass studio I have been employing a sort of digital vegetarianism, self hosting when possible and moving my digital life to decentralized platforms away from advertisers. I have become a digital problem solver at work- programming microcontrollers to control lights and facilitate interactive moments in retail environments.

Artistically, I’m interested in themes of celebration and excess, digital surveillance and influence, “Where ideas come from?”, consumerism, bliss and rebellious subversion. I love messes and I usually employ the “show your work” philosophy when designing and assembling my sculptures.