MIYA ANDO
All works in the collection (2)
-
Title: May 10 2021 Kumo(cloud) Diptych NYC
Year: 2021
Medium: ink on aluminum composite
Dimensions: diptych, 153.7 x 189.2 cm (60 x 1/4 x 74 1/2 in.) overall -
Title: Shou Sugi Ban Silver Redwood 12.3
Year: 2022
Medium: silver nitrate, reclaimed charred redwood
Dimensions: 30.5 x 30.5 x 30.5cm (12 x 12 x 12 in.)
Born in Los Angeles, US in 1973. Ando received a degree in East Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996, and pursued research in the same field at Yale University in 1996 and at Stanford University in 1997. After learning techniques at a metalworking studio in Okayama in 1997, she received a certificate from the Public Art Academy (Northern California) in 2009. Working mainly with materials such as metal and wood, she creates paintings, sculptures and installations, merging Eastern thought and the worldview found in Buddhism with the context of Western art. The various attributes held by figures in Buddhist sculpture and painting, like those in Western painting, use the symbolism of specific objects to encode the qualities of the depicted subject and the story behind it, bringing them into the picture. For Ando, who studied the iconography of Buddhist art, knowing this Eastern symbolism must have prompted a renewal of the "concept," which is particularly emphasized in contemporary art, her own practice included, as an extension of Western academism. The materials she adopts are regarded as symbols of permanence and immutability, corresponding to the "kalpa" taught in Buddhism. Strictly speaking, both metal and wood lose their present state through oxidation and decay; yet seen over a long span, the matter that constitutes them changes form and circulates without ever disappearing, and this ultimately applies to all things. The representations of fleeting time that recur in her works, such as shifting light and clouds that cannot hold their shape, lead our sensibilities toward the eternal time contained within them. Ando has held solo exhibitions at the Asia Society Texas Center (2019) and the Noguchi Museum (2018) and took part in the 56th Venice Biennale, and her works are in the collections of major museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
