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Exhibition Updates – Venice, DC, LA, and Yorkshire

We’ve got updates — and images — from exhibitions that include browngrotta artists and friends. 

Toshiko Takaezu and Ruth Asawa at the Venice Biennial
Venice Biennial – Toshiko Takaezu and Ruth Asawa at the Venice Biennial. Photos courtesy Darlene Fukuji, Victor Wang, Carla Romeo, and Donald Fletcher.

Toshiko Takaezu has received pride of place at the Venice Biennial in Italy. Eight of Takaezu’s works are featured in a gallery space that she shares with an dramatic selection of works by Ruth Asawa. Asawa is one of a group fiber artists (Ruth Asawa, Sonya Delaunay, Mrinalini Mukherjee and Rosemary Trockel) included in the Biennial this year. 

La Biennale di Venezia
59th International Art Exhibition
The Milk of Dreams
through November 27, 2022
BUY YOUR TICKETS

works by Toshiko Takaezu; portrait of Toshiko Takaezu by Tom Grotta
Works by Toshiko Takaezu; portrait of Toshiko Takaezu by Tom Grotta at This Present Moment, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. Photo by Ted Rowland.

Takaezu’s work is also highlighted in a gallery space in This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, aside a large portrait taken by Tom Grotta. Also well displayed in This Present Moment are works by Christine Joy, Polly Sutton and Joanne Segal Brandford. You can learn more about this ambitious exhibition in this brief video: https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/this-present-moment.

Works by Joanne Segal Brandford, Christine Joy and Polly Sutton
Works by Joanne Segal Brandford, Christine Joy and Polly Sutton. Photo by Mary Savig, Curator, This Present Moment, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.

This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World 
Renwick Gallery
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20006

Ferne Jacobs: Installation
Installation Photo of Building the Essentials: Ferne Jacobs. Photo: Madison Metro, Craft in America

Building the Essentials: Ferne Jacobs at the Craft in America Gallery Los Angeles, California is a long-overdue retrospective for the California artist. Throughout her 50-year career, Jacobs has revolutionized the fiber arts and pushed the boundaries of sculpture, while exploring expressions of gender through her artworks. Learn more about this remarkable exhibition in Christopher Knight’s insightful review from the Los Angeles Times: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-05-11/review-backlog-pandemic-postponed-art-shows?_amp=true. You still have until June 18th to see the exhibition. Can’t get there in person? The website has numerous images and videos.

Building the Essentials: Ferne Jacobs
Craft in America Gallery
8415 West Third Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Garnering deserved international attention — The Guardian, W, Wallpaper, The New York Times, Aesthetica — as “ravishing,” “delicious,” a “thrill of color” is Sheila Hicks‘ exhibition Off Grid in the UK. In progress for two years, she first visited the museum in person this spring before the opening. “It was fascinating to watch her enter the space, mapping and reading it in ways that I hadn’t seen other artists do, looking at the light sources, thinking of the angles,” the museum’s chief curator Andrew Bonacina told Wallpaper (“Riotous color, terrific textiles: Sheila Hicks: ‘Off Grid’ at The Hepworth Wakefield,” Jessica Klingelfuss, Wallpaper, April 9, 2022). “Across the exhibition, you’ll see an artist who has really explored the endless possibilities of fibre and thread as a sculptural material.” The exhibition features work that expands her 70-year career and includes photographs from her many travels. The museum is an ideal venue for such an ambitious display. ““I think it’s one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever shown in,” Hicks told inews.co.uk. If the UK is not in your travel plans, visit the museum’s site to view additional images: https://hepworthwakefield.org/whats-on/sheila-hicks/.

Sheila Hicks: Off Grid
Installation of Sheila Hicks: Off Grid at The Hepworth Wakefield, 2022. Art works L-R: Peace Barrier, 2018; Ripe Rip, 2019; Nowhere To Go, 2022. Photo: Tom Bird / Courtesy: The Hepworth Wakefield

Sheila Hicks: Off Grid
through September 25, 2022
The Hepworth Wakefield
Gallery Walk
Wakefield
West Yorkshire
WF1 5AW
01924 247360

hello@hepworthwakefield.org


Art Assembled: New This Week in April

Although launching our spring exhibition, Crowdsourcing the Collective: a survey of textiles and mixed media art, has kept us busy, we still had no shortage of new art to introduce you to in April. We presented art from many talented artists, including work from: Masako Yoshida, Ethel Stein, Polly Barton, and John McQueen. Just in case you missed out, we’re covering all the details about these artists and their art! Read on for more.

Masako Yoshida
14my Air Hole #838, Masako Yoshida, walnut and flax, 8″ x 8″ x 7″, 2017

This artwork comes from Japanese basketmaker, Masako Yoshida. Yoshida created this piece by interlacing sheets of walnut bark with string made of nettle. When asked about her work, Yoshida said:

“My work provides a means of release, allowing the truth to emerge and open the mind. In the process, I ask myself, ‘what is my connection to society?'”

Ethel Stein
56es Touch of Green, Ethel Stein, mercerized cotton, 31.5” x 36” x 1/4”, 2008. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Touch of Green comes from the late Ethel Stein, who was an exceptional American textile artist. Within her career, Stein created countless intricate textile pieces, and browngrotta arts has had the honor of representing her work for nearly 15 years.

Within Stein’s work, she has been known for using reproposed items that have been discarded as a medium and creating something miraculous with them. Often, her artwork is distinguished by its rhythmic simplicity, although it’s created with extraordinary technical complexity.

Polly Barton
8pb Thistledown, Polly Barton, handwoven double ikat with Japanese silk warp and Japanese silk wrapped around a metal core, 41” x 31” x 1.125”, 2016. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Thistledown was created by nationally recognized American fiber artist, Polly Barton. Trained in Japan, Barton is known for working with traditional methods of binding and dyeing bundles of fiber to weave contemporary imagery. More specifically, Barton is known for her talent in adapting the ancient weaving technique of ikat into contemporary woven imagery.

Barton has been charting the way for fiber art over the past 40 years. In fact, early in here career in 1981, Barton moved to Kameoka, Japan to study with master weaver, Tomohiko Inoue.

John McQueen
John McQueen, 32jm Out From Under, wood, willow, bark, and held together with tiny spikes of bamboo 20.75” x 25.25” x 16”, 2021. Photo by Tom Grotta.

This artwork was created by American artist, John McQueen. Within his work, viewers can often find themes of prominent world associations. Often, his three-dimensional works are created with natural materials like twigs, bark, cardboard – he prides himself on being able to create with found objects.

McQueen has discussed how plastic and metal are ubiquitous in landfills and our own trash and he hopes to draw attention to this waste problem with his art, as we are burying ourselves in waste without seeing it.

If you like the art you see – keep your eye out for even more in May! You’ll even have the opportunity to see art in person at our spring exhibition launching this weekend. Visit: https://bit.ly/38QiXCe to join us.


browngrotta arts and associated artists get good press

browngrotta arts and the artists we work with have been in the news lately — quite a bit in fact!

• In January, Simone Pheulpin’s remarkable career was the cover story in Crafts magazine from the UK. The work of Crafts “cover star” defies expectations. Her “ambiguous textile forms recall geological strata and the rings of a tree,” the magazine notes and “evoke the passage of time.” (Cynthia Rose, “Life Lines,” Crafts magazine, January 2022.)

• Karyl Sisson’s work graced the cover of the National Basketry Organization’s basketry+ in its Fall 2021/Winter 2022 issue. The article, “Karyl Sisson: From Nostalgic to Unexpected,” by Janet Mendelsohn, talks about Sisson’s Shapeshifters, a new series of vessels, which will be featured in browngrotta arts upcoming exhibition Crowdsourcing the Collective (May 7 – 15). The works are created of tightly quilled paper straws, laced like beads, threaded in circles, row by row to create cylinders that are manipulated to create lively sculptures. “I see my work as the expression of hidden energy and forces inside all of us,” the magazine quotes the Sisson. “The structures I create are diagrams of physical forces and laws that govern all growth and patterning.”

• A recent issue of the German publication of Art Aurea, profiles Yasuhisa Kohyama in its World Arts section. The magazine quotes Kohyama and it also quotes a German gallery owner, Marcus Müller, on the special tension Kohyama creates between the rough and smooth surfaces in his work and the unique colors of his work, created by the ash in his anagama kiln.
  • The Bay Area Artists’ Legacy Project has published its second volume, The Seventies, with a foreword by Maria Porges. One of the artists included is Lia Cook.
  • Maria Rosaria Roseo interviewed Carolina Yrarrázaval for a recent issue of Arte Morbida. “[Yrarrázaval’s] tapestries,” Roseo writes, “in which dark chromatic shades predominate with red and orange overlaps, together with the essential elegance of vegetable fibers such as jute, silk, cotton, hemp and linen, are the result of continuous research about the weaving techniques of ancient cultures such as pre-Columbian and Japanese which the artist draws inspiration from, creating textile abstractions with a refined, sober and rigorous aesthetic.” (https://www.artemorbida.com/interview-with-carolina-yrarrazaval/?lang=en).
  • HANDWERKEN, zonder grenzen (Crafting without limits) (https://www-handwerkenzondergrenzen-nl.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=nl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc) in the Netherlands featured a profile of Aleksandra Stoyanov in a recent issue. “Her work often contains images of the life she left behind in Ukraine [before emigrating to Israel] and has an emotional character that focuses on the social dilemmas of immigrants experiencing the loss of family and disconnecting their connection,” writes Alie Dijk. “She also incorporates family photos in her work, as in From the First Person. In Silence, she creates a space for personal memories.”
  • In “Wonder Wall,”by June Hill, Embroidery magazine profiled Dutch artist Marian Bijlenga last year. Rather than drawing on paper, the author points out, Bijlenga draws in three dimensions, “creating a series of rhythmic, visual relationships between form, pattern and mark.”
  • Finally, 068 (formerly Wilton Magazine) touted browngrotta arts’ Spring 2022 exhibition in its March/April Issue (“Uncovering a Hidden Gem”). Author Julia Bruce says browngrotta arts is “a unique, international showcase for contemporary fiber arts.” The magazine further notes that fiber artists tend to be women, and that browngrotta arts is committed to promoting, exhibiting and documenting their work.

We’re all pleased to be noticed!


Cross-country Exhibition News: New Mexico, Minnesota, New York, Connecticut

Work by a number of artists who work with browngrotta arts is on display in museum exhibitions across the country. From West to East:

New Mexico

Indelible Blue: Indigo Across the Globe
Albuquerque Museum
through April 24, 2022
abqmuseum@cabq.gov

James Bassler and Rowland Ricketts

We were delighted to loan several works to the Albuquerque Museum’s for Indelible Blue: Indigo Across the Globe, an expansive survey of the origins and history, techniques and movement of indigo, tracing back more than 6,000 years across cultures in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. The exhibition includes clothing and works of art by Eduardo Portillo and Mariá Dávila (VE), Hiroyuki Shindo (JP), Chiyoko Tanaka (JP), James Bassler (US), Chang Yeonsoon (KR) and Rowland Ricketts.

Minnesota

Parallel Lines: New Textile Masterworks Inspired by Geometry
Minneapolis Museum of Art
Minneapolis, MN
through August 28, 2022
https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/parallel-lines-new-textile-masterworks-inspired-by-geometry

Adela Akers Compostela
Adela Akers, Compostela, 1986, Photos by Adela Akers

Parallel Lines explores woven textiles, which are inherently geometric. Vertical warp and horizontal weft threads impose a gridded framework that is necessarily linear and two-dimensional. It guides but it also constrains. Presented here is a group of newly acquired textile works, all on view for the first time, which bear witness to artistic experiments in color and form that both celebrate and defy this intrinsic geometry. Included in this exhibition is Compostela, 1985, the Museum’s recent acquisition by Adela Akers. The work is geometrically intricate and also presents as two works, depending upon the side from which it is viewed. Helena Hernmarck’s work, Euclid’s Elements, 1995, also in the exhibition, expertly creates an optical illusion involving a ball, a pyramid and rainbow, rendering a “sculptural multimedia assemblage within a two-dimensional wool textile.”

New York

Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science
Tang Museum, Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, NY
through June 12, 2022
See More

Lia Cook Connectome
Connectome , Lia Cook, woven cotton and rayon , 72″ x 51”, 2013. Photo by Lia Cook

For centuries, fiber arts have influenced practical, theoretical, and pedagogical areas of the sciences as diverse as digital technology, mathematics, neuroscience, medicine, and more. Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science explores this relationship through contemporary art and historical artifacts centered on four key themes: shape, body, brain and machine. A celebration of interdisciplinary creativity and collaborative learning, Radical Fiber foregrounds each work as at once fine art, process-driven craft, and scientific tool, complicating existing frameworks across fields. Can a crochet hook and yarn uniquely explain the complexities of non-Euclidean geometry? Why does the 1804 Jacquard loom relate to modern computing? How did the accidental discovery of synthetic mauveine dye in 1856 pave the way for modern pharmaceuticals yet also generate toxic environmental impact? Why do we respond differently to a woven photograph than a printed one? These and other questions will reframe the histories of fiber/science intersections and ask not only how artists continue to engage in scientific inquiry through fiber, but also importantly, how the medium can be used to improve our world for the future.

During this exhibition a study will be conducted in the neuroscience lab using woven faces (by Lia Cook)

Connecticut

The Westport Idea
Museum of Contemporary Art
Westport, Connecticut
Through March 12, 2022
https://mocawestport.org/the-westport-idea/

Norma Minkowitz From Nothing to Nothing
Norma Minkowitz, From Nothing to Nothing, 4×12” 1986  cotton fiber, colored pencil, metal screen, shellac 1986; Paul Camacho, Portrait of a Girl with Striped Shirt 1966; Lisa Daugherty, Synagogue 67th Street, 1962 
Westport Public Art Collections, Photo by Jenna Bascom Photography

The Westport Idea features a diverse range of selections from Westport, Connecticut Public Art Collections (WestPAC) holdings of more than 2,000 artworks. Most of these works, by 50 different artists, have been housed in public schools and municipal buildings, not always accessible to the public. The collection includes works by Alex Katz, Robert Rauschenberg, Joan Mitchell, Robert Indiana and Norma Minkowitz. Her 1986 work, From Nothing to Nothing, is made of cotton fiber, colored pencil, metal screen and shellac. The vessel is both knitted and crocheted, a departure for her at that time. The exterior is knitted, the ball is crocheted with metallic screen in the background. The work, says Minkowitz, is about perpetual isolation, loneliness and entrapment as were many of her vessels during this period.


Art Assembled: New This Week in January

We’ve been kicking off the year at browngrotta arts with some impressive art, and we’re excited to keep it coming for the rest of the year! In January, we introduced our followers to art from Eva Vargö, Ane Henriksen, Hisako Sekijima, Gjertrud Hals, Blair Tate and so many more talented artists. Just in case you missed it, we’re recapping it here so you can view all of their impressive works in one place.

This art, Japandí, was created by Swedish artist, Eva Vargö. When creating this piece, Vargö used Japanese and Korean book papers collected throughout her travels across East Asia. Vargö integrated these materials through a complex process where she fused paper and linen-thread materials into her weaving technique. When asked about why she creates, she has said she often weaves to deals with life’s fast pace.

“The working process is often repetitive and so it becomes meditative,” said Eva Vargö. “Mostly it gives me some peace of mind and my aim is to work at a slow pace. To be able to do one thing at a time without rush and to let go – to meet the unforeseen. I want to trust my intuition and my inner voice.”

This artwork, Reserve, was handwoven by Danish artist Ane Henriksen. This profound piece was created with the intention of highlighting some of the ecological peril that was see in our society today. When explaining this piece, Henriksen said:

“Nature is threatened,” said Ane Henriksen. “I hope this is expressed in my image, which at first glance can be seen as a peaceful, recognizable view of nature, but when you move closer and see the material, it might make you uneasy, and add thoughts of how human activity is a threat against nature. By framing the nature motif museum-like in a solid oak frame, I try to make you aware how we store small natural remains in reserves — in the same way as we store exquisite objects from our past history in our museums.”

Suspended Decision was created by acclaimed Japanese artist Hisako Sekijima. In the art world, Sekijima has long been recognized as an artist whose innovation and artistry seem to know few bounds as her techniques and approaches extend well beyond traditional basketing making. 

“I call myself a basketmaker because I inform my work by thinking and processing the nature and history of basketry,” said Hisako Sekijima. “And also, because in order to realize the ideas, I choose to use materials and structural methods that have typically been used for basketmaking. It pleases me that my ideas and the final results of my work expand the boundary well beyond what I once thought of as the domain of basketry.”

Norwegian artist, Gjertrud Hals, consistently pushes the envelope and impresses with her creative knitted vessels. Hals was born and raised on the northwestern coast Norway and has spent much of her time traveling and learning about various cultures, and she has discussed how these experiences largely influence her work today. More specifically, Hals has discussed how India, Jordan, Norway and Japan have had a significant impact on her artwork.

“As a seasoned traveler I have observed many different cultures,” said Gjertrud Hals. “Much of my artistic work is an attempt at expressing the connection between the islands micro-history and the world’s macro-history.”

This piece comes from American artist, Blair Tate. Tate has been creating contemporary work since the 1970’s under the influence of the 60’s minimalism and modernist architecture and is known for exploring flat, woven grids in her work.

Pangaea was created last year amid the pandemic and was featured in our exhibition Adaptation: Artists Respond to Change. When creating this specific piece, Tate said she consciously wove to the very limits of her warp to minimize loom waste. Whereas in the past she said she may have incorporated interruptions in the strips while weaving, thereby wasting the unwoven warp; in Pangaea, the gaps emerge only in the rearranging.

Like what you see? We introduce new art every Monday! Follow us on social media to stay up-to-date with our latest works.


Year in Review  — 2021 by the Numbers

We had a busy year in 2021. Here are some of the details, quantified.

Catalog Pages
Adaptation: artists respond to change and Japandi: shared aesthetics and influences catalogs
gallery visitors
Exhibition visitors
online platforms

online platforms

social media
social media
blogs
arttextstyle blog
Museum Acquisitions
The The Renwick Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum; The Minneapolis Museum of Art; The Warehouse Museum
corporate acquisitions
Neha Puri Dhir, Unseen, 2016
Art-in-Embassies
3 large Mary Merkel-Hess Baskets
bag videos
Juried Exhibitions
International Fiber Arts X – Surface Design Association

Next year is shaping up to be just as busy. We are scheduling two in-person exhibitions and accompanying catalogs, videos and online walkthroughs. And this year, we are adding a book, scheduled for Spring publication. Also, coming soon on browngrotta arts’ website: Viewing Rooms. More news to come. Watch this space in 2022!


Pantone Color(s) of the Year — Ultimate Gray and Illuminating (Yellow)

For more than 20 years, Pantone has been choosing a color of the year. For 2021, however, the color influencer has chosen harmony over singularity. The color for 2021 is two colors, Pantone 17-5104 Ultimate Gray + Pantone 13-0647 Illuminating — soft gray and citron yellow reflecting strength and positivity, practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2021. “No one color could get across the meaning of the moment,” Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, told the New York Times. “We all realized we cannot do this alone. We all have a deeper understanding of how we need each other and emotional support and hope.” 

To celebrate the pairing, we present a selection of art works that feature gray and yellow. 

65mg Silver Figure
Mary Giles
waxed linen, silver wire
24″ x 4.5″, 1999
36sb Gray Line with Yellow II,
Sara Brennan
linen, cotton and wools
41.5″ x 36″, 2007
5mb Gold Laugh
Micheline Beauchemin,
 metallic and acrylic thread, cotton
25.25” x 21.25” x 2.25”, 1980-85
4lw Winter, Fornebu
Løvass & Wagle
rainware, nylon stockings
45″ x 45″, 1999
47es Footprints on the Dunes
Ethel Stein
mercerized cotton, damask
31.25” x 35.25” x 1.5”, 2011
16cht Blue Threads and Yellow Stripes
Chiyoko Tanaka
handwoven ground fabric
12.5” x 26”, 1990

According to the Pantone Color Institute, “the two offer a combination of color whose ties to insight, innovation and intuition, and respect for wisdom, experience, and intelligence inspires regeneration, pressing us forward toward new ways of thinking and concepts. Emboldening the spirit, the pairing of Ultimate Gray and Illuminating highlights our innate need to be seen, to be visible, to be recognized, to have our voices heard.”


Artist Focus: Chiyoko Tanaka

We are adding a new feature to our social media lineup periodically, an Artist Focus. Our first artist spotlight is on Chiyoko Tanaka, who celebrated her birthday on January 1st. 

Portrait of Chiyoko Tanaka with Hiroyuki Shindo
Chiyoko Tanaka on the right, Hiroyuki Shindo’s wife on the left and Hiroyuki Shindo in the center at browngrotta arts in 1996. Photo by Tom Grotta.

We have been honored to exhibit the work of Chiyoko Tanaka since 1996, when we were pleased to host Sheila Hicks Joined by Seven Artists from Japan

Time is essential in Tanaka’s work. After weaving works on an obi loom, she agrees them with mud and stone, brick and clay. Portions of the work are deliberately worn away as an actual and metaphorical representation of time, or “weaving time into space,” as she describes it. She works in various series — Mud-Dyed Cloth, Grinded Fabrics and Printed & Grinded Fabrics.

Grinded Fabric-Three Squares Blue Threads and Blue #689 by Chiyoko Tanaka
Grinded Fabric-Three Squares Blue Threads and Blue #689Chiyoko Tanaka, handwoven, ground fabric (raw linen, ramie)-rubbed with white stone, pencil drawing, 19.25″ x 44.25″ x 2.25″, 2005, Photo by Tom Grotta

“Placing the fabric on the ground, I trace out the ground texture and surface of the fabric,” Tanaka explains. “The final color of the surface is not so important, more the effect achieved by the application of a certain soil, charcoal or choice of tool which helped translate the texture of the ground more readily into my ‘canvas.’ The true past tense of the verb to grind, ‘ground,’ also implies the earth, which can be used to embed, implant, erode and emboss its own surface into my work.” 

Detail  of Mud-Dyed Cloth - Mud Dots on Brown Stripes #742 by Chiyoko Tanaka
Detail – Mud-Dyed Cloth – Mud Dots on Brown Stripes #742, Chiyoko Tanaka, handwoven, mud- dyed fabric (raw linen, ramie), 21″ x 44″ x 1.5″, 2009, Photo by Tom Grotta

Tanaka’s work has been exhibited throughout the world: Europe, England, Australia, Israel and the US. It is included in the public collections at 

Permeated Black Stain #941  by Chiyoko Tanaka
Permeated Black Stain #941, Chiyoko Tanaka, handwoven, black dyed Korean ramie, black stain, and rubbed with stone on the reverse side, 18″ x 32.25″, 1999-2001. Photo by Tom Grotta

Museum of Arts and Crafts Hamburg, Germany; Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Passage de Retz, Paris, France; Kyoto City University of Arts, Japan; Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, Poland. She was one of the artists featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the seminal exhibition, Structure and Surface: Contemporary Japanese Textiles  and in traveling exhibition, Texture & Influence, curated by Lesley Millar, for the University of the Creative Arts in the UK. She is among the artists profiled in the award-winning video, Textile Magicians


Objects of Desire – Artful Gifts Under $2500

Here’s another selection of singular art works by prestigious artworks from the US, Europe, Asia and Israel.

By the Sea, Polly Barton, silk, double ikat, 17.5” x 16.5” x 2”, 2019.
Photo by Tom Grotta

Polly Barton’s woven ikat “paintigs” like By the Sea, are influenced by geography. Barton was born and raised in the Northeast, trained to weave in Japan, and has lived most of her life in the American Southwest. Her work reflects these disparate locales. 

Enfold, Jennifer Falck Linssen, handcrafted vessel of katagami-style handcarved paper. Materials include archival cotton paper, aluminum, waxed linen, paint, varnish, freshwater pearl, and sterling silver, 5.5″ x 20″ x 3″, 2008.
Photo by Tom Grotta

In Jennifer Falck Linssen’ elegant vessel, Enfoldthe Japanese stencil (katagami) has been recontextualized. Linssen explore the stencil’s sculptural possibilities, combining carving, stitching and metalwork. She starts with a series of sketches, exploring and refining the form, pattern, and identity of the piece. In the sculpture’s final state, it is dyed, painted patinaed, and varnished. Linssen, who also studied in Japan, now lives and works in Wisconsin.

Traces 4 Relief, Mia Olsson, sisal and coconut fiber, acrylic glass, sisal on blastered acrylic glass, 14″ x 11.875″ x 1.25″, 2006.
Photo by Tom Grotta

Mia Olsson’s pieces, like Traces 4 Reliefare made of sisal fibers, dyed and formed in a technique of her own. The sisal fibers used by the Swedish artist are shiny and reflect the light, even more when formed in relief. The colors are richly saturated — engaging the viewer on each viewing.

At Grands Montets, Naomi Kobayashi, kayori thread, paper & wood, 31.5” x 11” x 2”, 2008. Photo by Tom Grotta

In At Grand MontetsNaomi Kobayahsi presents a framed paper-and-thread construction. Well-known Japanese artist Kobayashi is known for such sculptures that are generally much larger, filling a wall as panels or a ceiling in a circular shape. With At Grand Montets, the viewer can appreciate the light and stillness that are highlighted in her work, on a smaller scale. 

Red Dress, Gali Cnaani, copper, cotton, 21.75″ x 14″, 2006
Photo by Tom Grotta

A whimsical Red Dress of red copper threads is the creation of Gali Cnaani of Israel. Cnaani is interested in the linear structure of textiles and in exploring the light and its affects on the exposed copper threads.

The fine print: Order today and we’ll ship by tomorrow (though due to COVID we can’t guarantee the shippers’ delivery schedule). If you’d like us to gift wrap your purchase, email us at art@browngrotta.com, as soon as you have placed your order. To ensure we know you want gift wrapping, don’t wait to contact us — we generally ship as soon as the orders are received. Quantities are limited.


The Artful Gift Guide: 5 Under $2000

If you have reached those people on your list who have everything, and you are still stumped, we may be able to help you out. Below is a select grouping of objects and wall art from accomplished artists around the world. We guarantee there’s a one-of-kind choice here for anyone aesthetically oriented.

Little Star, willow, beeswax, damar resin, 10” x 8” x 6”, 2019. Photo by Tom Grotta

Little StarChristine Joy’s willow sphere without beginning or end, evokes the eternal and nature in a single object. Joy, a Montana artist,constructs her sculptures to appear as if they are moving, growing and animated, as though the shapes had been cut from a tree or pulled from moving water. “I want them to sit still,” she says, “unchanging, yet to the eye of the viewer to flow, to move around and back again, to carry the movement of life.” 

Existence, Naoko Serino, Jute, 8.5″ x 7.75″ x 8.5″, 2018. Photo by Tom Grotta

Japanese artist, Naoko Serino, works in jute, a remarkably adaptable material that provokes references to biological structures. Serino’s three-dimensional sculptures, like Existence, encapsulate light and air, appearing deceptively fragile. Her work that exudes a comfortable energy, always in balance with its surroundings.

Photoatelier #10, Irina Kolesnikova, flax, silk, hand woven, 15.5″ x 11.75″; 20″ x 16″, frame, 2004. Photo by Tom Grotta

A paradoxical combination of contemporary art language and ancient handweaving technique is evident in the work of Irina Kolineskova who has emigrated from Russia to Germany. I like old, black-and-white photos very much,” she says,”and I play with images from these pictures, using silhouettes, details of dress, signs of a profession. I make collage and then replicate collage in woven technique.”

Four Tier Curly Birch Wood Bowl, Markku Kosonen, curly birch, 10.5″ x 10″ x 11″, 2001. Photo by Tom Grotta

Wood was integral to the artistic practice of the late Markku Kosonen of Finland who created this ingenious Four-Tier Curly Birch Bowl. An important aspect of his work was the ability to express things; craftsmanship alone was not enough. “What begins as an ordinary utilitarian object soon turns into a creative work” he said. “The purpose of work such as this is to appeal to one’s emotions. For me, arts and crafts entail a spiritual processing of material, linking humanism to objects.”

Color Grid, Marian Bijlenga, korean bojagi, horsehair and fabric , 22″ x 20″, 2017. Photo by Tom Grotta

Marian Bijlenga of the Netherlands has a fascination with dots, lines and contours that is evident in artworks like, Color GridRather than draw on paper, she draws in space, using textile as a material and leaves enough distance between the structure and its aligning wall to create what she refers to as a “spatial drawing.”

The fine print: Order for the holidays by December 14th and we’ll ship by the 15th (though due to COVID we can’t guarantee the shippers’ delivery schedule). If you’d like us to gift wrap your purchase, email us at art@browngrotta.com, as soon as you have placed your order. To ensure we know you want gift wrapping, don’t wait to contact us — we generally ship as soon as the orders are received. Quantities are limited.