New York artist Miya Ando presents new paintings on metal and a large-scale sculpture exploring themes of transformation. 

A descendant of Japanese sword makers, Ando combines traditional techniques of her ancestry with modern industrial technology, skillfully transforming sheets of aluminum into ephemeral, abstract paintings suffused with subtle gradations of color and texture.

 

In many of her new works, layers of pigments and urethane create variations in color and finish, with matte areas juxtaposed with glossy ones. To produce a high-gloss finish, Ando adds up to twenty layers of urethane and resin, which vividly amplifies the reflective quality of the metal. The resulting works subtly evoke minimalist landscapes and abstracted metallic horizons.

 

Ando has also introduced a new material: Shou Sugi Ban, a charred wood used as a building material in her hometown of Okayama. Similar to the metals she works with, the wood, once charred, is transformed, becoming more durable. Her large-scale installation Ku (Emptiness/The Sky) Shou Sugi Ban is clad in this wood, with an interior composed of multiple metal panels that surround the viewer, offering a quiet space for contemplation and the experience of stepping inside one of Ando’s paintings.

 

Miya Ando has received many awards, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2012. Her work has been shown worldwide, including in a recent show curated by Nat Trotman of the Guggenheim Museum and an exhibition at the Queens Museum, New York. She has produced numerous public commissions, most notably a thirty-foot-tall commemorative sculpture in London built from World Trade Center steel to mark the ten-year anniversary of 9/11.