Miya Ando once told us “I think of myself as a person who works with light.” And light is certainly crucial in viewing her works. But take the modest statement with a grain of salt because, when creating her works, the part-artist, part-alchemist is usually armed with a breather mask, heavy gloves, a blow torch, sandpaper, grinders and a slew of pigments and chemicals that would make any chemistry teacher jealous.
The petite Ando – some of the steel canvases she works with weigh more than she does – uses these tools to transform surfaces into subtle graduations of color that capture moments in time. Her new exhibition, titled Kisetsu (seasons in Japanese), are a series of paintings and installations that “are about finding harmony and balance between the man-made and natural.”
Ando’s exhibition opens tomorrow at Sundaram Tagore in Chelsea (NYC) and will remain open through November 15, 2014.
A descendant of Bizen sword makers, Ando’s goal is to create a relationship between her industrial materials and the natural world. And we are proud to have collaborated with her on an original product that embodies that spirit: the tetsu to kinu scarf.
(this post is part of a series of our top picks of Japanese art openings in New York this fall 2014. You can see other picks here.)
