Young Brooklyn-based artist Miya Ando's steel works are minimal in appearance but maximal in story. They are made by grinding, sanding, inking, and who knows what else—she was taught by her family to weld at a young age, and her family is a big part of the story of each piece. She grew up in a Buddhist monastery in Japan, the descendant of monks who had once been sword makers. Behind Ando's works, there's a tension that comes from the paradox of strength that the stronger you are, the less likely you'll have to fight—and maybe even that the sharper the blade, the less pain when it goes in.

Ando has been in the news for something else lately—a controversial 9/11 memorial. After the World Trade Center towers fell, about 100,000 tons of scrap steel was distributed around the world, free of charge, for memorials. Ando was selected to create one in London, and it was supposed to stand outside City Hall, but due to protests from victims' family members, it was instead placed temporarily in a more out-of-the-way site in a London park on the recent occasion of the 10th anniversary. Half of the steel used to make the Twin Towers was from Japan, Ando says. She took a 28-foot-tall piece and burnished part of it so it's gleaming, reflecting the sky, completely in contrast to the rusted rest of the remains—but with the same ragged edges.