During the lockdown, Ando immersed herself in an investigation of indigo, which she has used to create a series of moon drawings based on her observations of the night sky. She produced one every day of the closure as a way to chronicle the experience. The drawings inspired a new body of work that explores the moon in different phases and atmospheric conditions, which Ando says she articulates using the vocabulary of minute changes in nature as an examination into an alternate recording of time. Although indigo is a material Ando is deeply familiar with, this is her first body of work highlighting it.
The exhibition also features several of Ando’s kumo (cloud) paintings, one of which was recently acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Additionally, there will be work from her new Oborozuki series on view, which investigates the concept of liminal space.
Miya Ando has a Bachelor of Arts degree in East Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and attended Yale University to study Buddhist iconography and imagery. She apprenticed with the master metalsmith Hattori Studio in Japan, followed by a residency at Northern California’s Public Art Academy.
Ando’s work has been shown worldwide, including at the Asia Society Texas Center, Houston; Socrates Sculpture Park, New York; Katzen Arts Center, American University Museum, Washington D.C.; Noguchi Museum, New York; Detroit Institute of Arts; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas; Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Queens Museum, New York; Rubin Museum of Art, New York; Spartanburg Art Museum, North Carolina; Grand Rapids Public Museum, Michigan; Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, California; Hammond Museum, North Salem, New York; Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Georgia; Pensacola Museum of Art, Florida; and the de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, California, in a show curated by Nat Trotman of the Guggenheim Museum.
