Ayako Bando: Towanohikari – Eternal Light

Ayako Bando exhibits Towanohikari – Eternal Light in the Narthex Gallery at Saint Peter's Church August 10 - October 18, 2018. Free and open to the public daily.

This installation is presented by Midtown Arts Common in cooperation with Saint Peter's Church.

About the work

Nature is a major force in this installation, owing in part to the artist’s childhood. Born in Tokushima, Japan, Ayako Bando was raised surrounded by the beauty of nature: mountains, rivers, trees and flowers. Ever since she has played with the idea of an invisible world within her spiritual mind, all intertwined with nature.

While “we all walk our different lives connected to each other having separate and unique personalities, we are born pure and innocent. Our originalities are the same.”

Translated from Japanese, Towahonikari means “eternal light.”

The artist conceived the light reflected in these paintings as the light that “illuminates our hearts

and brings purity.” In these works Bando expresses a connection between nature and light and energy as from one’s own body.

Rich in yellows and greens, Bando’s work almost bursts with energy from what is otherwise stark white canvas. Light refracts in circular form atop a background created with long brushes of reds, blues and oranges.

Bando says she is heavily influenced by Russian-born artist Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky studied and then taught painting and color theory for many years at the Bauhaus. In addition to his exploration of color, in this period Kandinsky worked intensely with geometrical forms: the circle and half-circle, the angle, straight lines, and curves.

Bando infuses this heritage with her own. “Like him, I also use a lot of color in my work. And my art work is related to nature and the human atmosphere. I’m trying to express the energy the atmosphere contains. And I always give my work movement. Motionless art is not my taste.”

Please join us at the reception on August 30, 2018 at 6PM.

Ayako Bando has exhibited in various venues in the United States, Japan, Germany and Italy. In 2017 she was the recipient of the Incentive Award for the Modern Japan Art Society Kantou Art Exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Bando has studied with a number of teachers in Osaka, London, Tokyo and New York.

Planning your visit

Saint Peter's Church is located at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 54th Street in midtown Manhattan.

Gallery hours: daily 9:00 A.M. - 11:00 P.M.r
The Church building sometimes closes early.
Call 212 935 2200 for exact closing times.

Saint Peter’s Church is accessible to all people at the building entrances on Lexington Avenue and on 54th Street.

The E, M (weekdays only), 4, 5 and 6 trains stop nearby. As do the M57, M31, M50, M101 and M103 buses.