The artist, Sono Kuwayama, lives and works in NYC. In the summer of 2020, when her neighborhood was looted and boarded up following the murder of George Floyd, she gathered artists together in a creative outpouring which became “Bringing_Back_Bowery.”
Art speaks to the human spirit and it was this communion we were all missing after 100 days of lockdown. Out on the streets the artists could bring visual resonance to the experiences that were stirring and gestating in a collective cry of truth, beauty and goodness.
Her piece, “B&W” was made specifically for Chase Bank on the Bowery. The bank was reluctant to have anything “political” on their facade but finally allowed Kuwayama to paint “B&W,” sight unseen, due to her persistence and dedication to the vision of the project.
Outwardly, it is a simple abstraction. Kuwayama’s work considers the space in which a work will exist and the various relationships it will constitute. The “message” if there is any, is for the viewer to see and understand in their own terms. Art is not about telling you what to see but presents itself as an invitation for you to see, to engage, to question and ruminate. Kuwayama’s hope was that “B&W” would speak on many levels to many people.
This piece fostered other works in her studio practice, even as far afield as an installation, “Equinox,” in County Clare, Ireland, the following winter. She considers three pieces she made, “B&W,” “Untitled (made in her studio in NYC) and “Equinox” to be related works, linked in a moment between the vernal equinox of 2020 and the vernal equinox of 2021.