Last week, Arts Brookfield brought artists and the local community together at Brookfield Place for Art and the Environment: Artist Talk with Tatiana Arocha and Sarah Cameron Sunde. The evening was a celebration of the art projects currently on display at Brookfield Place, as well as a tribute to Tatiana Arocha, the 2022 Brookfield Place New York Annual Arts Commission recipient, and the unveiling of the 2023 Brookfield Place New York Annual Arts Commission recipient.
The panel discussion was moderated by curator Kendal Henry, who facilitated an engaging conversation on Arocha and Sunde’s environmentally-inspired work, calling attention to society’s complex relationship with and impact on the environment.
The evening ended with the highly-anticipated unveiling of the 2023 Brookfield Place New York Annual Arts Commission recipient: Miya Ando.
Miya Ando is a celebrated artist who expresses concepts of impermanence and interdependence of nature in her works. Ando’s paintings, sculptures, drawings, and installations are a physical articulation of her contemplation of the cycles of nature and the inexorable passage of time. Examples of Miya Ando’s past work can be found here.
The Brookfield Place Annual Arts Commission provides each year’s recipient with the opportunity to create art in a unique way in a public setting.Arts Brookfield has commissioned artists to create new works of art at Brookfield Place for almost 35 years. Arts Brookfield commissions all types of artwork (dance, music, theater), however, the Brookfield Place Annual Arts Commission is generally awarded to a visual artist.
ABOUT MIYA ANDO’S WORK
Nature serves as form and metaphor for expressing the concepts of impermanence and interdependence in Miya Ando’s artworks. The artist’s paintings, sculptures, drawings, and installations are a physical articulation of Ando’s contemplation of the cycles of nature and the inexorable passage of time. Concept, image, and materials are inextricably linked in the artist’s work. Ando transforms her mindfully chosen substrates: steel, wood, glass, aluminum – materials symbolizing permanence -- to
offer a view of that which is transitory. The layered, refractive surfaces of Ando’s sculptures and experiential paintings on metal, mirror the ephemeral nature of their subject, which is often fleeting natural phenomena: the seasons, light, clouds, tides evoked in the artist’s minimal visual syntax. Likewise, indigo drawings on washi paper represent a glimpse of the momentary – a glint of moonlight on a wave, or the radiant of a meteor shower. Juxtaposing the manmade with the organic, the material with the immaterial, polarity and harmony coexist in the artist's work. This polarity is rooted in Ando’s unique perspective as an artist occupying a vantage point between Japanese and Western culture. Language, a signifier of cultural values, is integral to the artist’s creative inquiry.
ABOUT BROOKFIELD PLACE NEW YORK
Brookfield Place (BFPL) New York is one of Brookfield's most iconic Place Making destinations that brings together modern office space, cultural experiences, curated dining and world-class shopping. One of New York City's most dynamic districts, Brookfield Place is a step away from the everyday and in step with the latest in global and local culture. The 14-acre, 5-building complex on the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan is home to some of the world's most innovative companies and one of New York's most celebrated experiential, culinary and shopping destinations. Brookfield animates its grand indoor and outdoor public spaces year-round through a mix of culture and events, bringing together a diverse array of New Yorkers and visitors. From waterfront cafes along the North Cove Marina to palm trees inside the famed Winter Garden, art installations to live music, Brookfield Place New York is a setting for discovery and inspiration, savoring and indulging, relaxing and socializing.
