Monthly archives: April, 2014

Don’t Miss – 10 Days Only: Of Two Minds: Artists Who Do More Than One of a Kind, browngrotta arts, Wilton, CT

April 21, 2014 0 Comment

This Saturday, April 26th, marks the opening of Of Two Minds: Artists Who Do More Than One of a Kind at browngrotta arts, 276 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT. Open for just 10 days, Of Two Minds features 25 international artists working in a a variety of media, including, glass, wood, watercolor, metal and fiber. The artists in the exhibition show remarkable range, working in different mediums, mastering different techniques and materials and creating complementary or contrasting works along the way. “Painters paint, sculptors sculpt, but the textile and mixed media artists in Of Two Minds are less restricted by material or technique,” explains browngrotta arts’ co-curator, Tom Grotta. “Represented in major museums, these artists weave, plait, knit, crochet, stitch and felt and also carve, construct, draw, dye, weld and paint.” Each artist in Of Two Minds has provided at least two contrasting works — several will exhibit more than two.

Detail of MarianBijlenga installation of glass and fiber, photo by Tom Grotta

Detail of MarianBijlenga installation of glass and fiber, photo by Tom Grotta

Marian Bijlenga, of the Netherlands, has sent a stitched work of horsehair, one of fish scales, a wall assemblage of glass “doodles” resulting from her glass experiments and also two glass sculptures.

Tissus d’ombres, detail, Stéphanie Jacques’,photo by Tom Grotta

Tissus d’ombres, detail, Stéphanie Jacques’,photo by Tom Grotta

Stéphanie Jacques of Belgium exhibits clay-coated and textile-edged woven baskets, with wood-worked bases along with a stitched photographic print.

Vanishing and Emerging installation detail by Hideho Tanaka, photo by Tom Grotta

Vanishing and Emerging installation detail by Hideho Tanaka, photo by Tom Grotta

Hideho Tanaka of Japan combines a large patched linen weaving with sculptures of torched paper and steel.

detail of Lawrence LaBianca installation from Of Two Minds, photo by Tom Grotta

detail of Lawrence LaBianca installation from Of Two Minds, photo by Tom Grotta

Lawrence LaBianca of California exhibits works combining glassblowing, prints, wood and metal work. LaBianca’s Skiff is interactive, when a viewer picks up the phone, he or she can hear the rushing river that inspired the work. The full list of participating artists is:
Dona Anderson (US),  Dorothy Gill Barnes ( US),  Dail Behennah (UK),  Nancy Moore Bess (US),  Marian Bijlenga (NL),  Birgit Birkkjaer (DK),  Gali Cnaani (IL),  Agneta Hobin (FI),  Stéphanie Jacques (BE),  Tamiko Kawata (JP),  Naomi Kobayashi (JP),  Kyoko Kumai (JP),  Lawrence LaBianca(US),  Gyöngy Laky(US),  Sue Lawty (UK),  John McQueen (US),  Norma Minkowitz (US),  Scott Rothstein (US),  Axel Russmeyer (DE),  Hisako Sekijima (JP),  Karyl Sisson (US),  Jin-Sook So (JP),  Hideho Tanaka (JP),  Deborah Valoma (US) and Grethe Wittrock (DK).

Wave Hill Bread

Wave Hill Breads

The Artists Reception and Opening begins at 12 p.m. on Saturday. Several of the artists will be in attendance including, Tamiko Kawata (US),  Norma Minkowitz (US) , Sue Lawty (UK) and John McQueen (US). We’ll also be tasting artisan breads from Wave Hill Breads. From Sunday the 27th through Sunday, May 4th, our hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by appointment. Call us at 203-834-0623 if you wish to come earlier or later. We are at work on a catalog for the exhibition which you can purchase at bga or online after May 1st. For more information visit: http://browngrotta.com/Pages/newthisweek.php.

Make A Day of It: Of Two Minds and Other Art Activities in Our Area

April 14, 2014 0 Comment
Glow & Glitter, Agneta Hobin, mica, steel mesh, 8” x 8” each, 2014; Alchemia, Agneta Hobin, gilded gold-leaf wooden reliefs, 8” x 8” each, 2014, photo by Tom Grotta

Glow & Glitter, Agneta Hobin, mica, steel mesh, 8” x 8” each, 2014; Alchemia, Agneta Hobin, gilded gold-leaf wooden reliefs, 8” x 8” each, 2014, photo by Tom Grotta

There are cultural opportunities aplenty in our area in late April and early May. In addition to Of Two Minds: Artists That Do More Than One of a Kind at browngrotta arts (bga), 276 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, Connecticut from April 26th (12pm – 6pm) through May 4th (10 am – 5 pm, April 27th – May 4th), there are exhibitions of interest in nearby Ridgefield, Westport and at the Wilton Historical Society:

Standing in the Shadows of Love: The Aldrich Collection 1964–1974 Part 1 Robert Rauschenberg, (1925–2008) Robert Rauschenberg, Umpire, 1965; Private collection

Standing in the Shadows of Love: The Aldrich Collection 1964–1974 Part 1
Robert Rauschenberg, (1925–2008)
Robert Rauschenberg, Umpire, 1965; Private collection

Celebrating 50 Years:
Standing in the Shadows of Love: The Aldrich Collection 1964–1974
Robert Indiana, Robert Morris, Ree Morton, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Smithson

Aldrich Museum of Art (6.13 miles from bga)
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT 06877
http://www.aldrichart.org

Hours
Tuesday – Sunday, 12 to 5 p.m.

The Aldrich will celebrate its 50th Anniversary with three overlapping series of exhibitions that highlight not only the Museum’s legacy, but also the relationship between the era in which it was founded and our current cultural landscape. The first, Standing in the Shadows of Love: The Aldrich Collection 1964–1974 — features iconic, historical works by Robert Indiana, Robert Morris, Ree Morton, Robert Rauschenberg, and Robert Smithson that represent the Museum’s early collection acquired by founder Larry Aldrich.

SOLOS 2014

WAC.logoWestport Arts Center (7.01 miles from bga)
51 Riverside Avenue
Westport, CT. 06880
www.westportartscenter.org

Hours:
Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm
Sunday 12pm – 4pm

Of 150 applicants, Patricia Hickson, the Emily Hall Tremaine Curator of Contemporary Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut has selected 12 artists, including browngrotta arts’ friend, Ken Resen, to exhibit in Westport Arts Center’s SOLOS 2014.

wiltonhistoricalsocieylogoChanging Times — Hand Tools Before the Industrial Revolution: Connecticut Tools of the Trades from the Walter R.T. Smith Collection 
and
Tavern Signs & Paintings: Heidi Howard, Maker & Painter

In its Burt Barn Gallery, the Society has mounted a series of eccentrically shaped, unusual tools. In the Sloan House Gallery, the Society presents an exhibition of contemporary interpretations of 18th and 19th century trade and tavern signs crafted from hand-planed 100- to 200-year old boards, painted by Heidi Howard.

Wilton Historical Society (1.98 miles from bga)

224 Danbury Road
Wilton, CT 06897
www.wiltonhistorical.org
Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 4pm

Process Notes: Marian Bijlenga, Musings on 30 Years of Work To Date; 30 More to Go

April 3, 2014 1 Comment

photo by Marian Bijlenga

Marian Bijlenga PortraitDutch artist, Marian Bijlenga, recently compiled this group of miniatures reflecting 30 years of her artistic career, which she reckons is just a halfway point. Below she talks about her process, adapted from an interview by Manufactured Design By Architects (MDBA). The Spanish firm creates spaces that stir emotions and locates decorative elements and furniture to suit. It sources artists, like Marian Bijlenga, who inspire its work and interviews them at MDBY. MDB Architects.

1994-2012.B

Blue Holes, DetailI studied at the textile design department of Rietveld Art Acdaemy in Amsterdam (1977-1982), but I developed the techniques I use myself. When I studied textiles, I began by learning to weave, but for me, weaving was too slow. It took a lot of time before you could start, and I did not like the technique. I was looking for a more direct way of working. I took the threads held by the loom and began instead to make drawings, stiffening the fiber by dipping it in glue. 1986-1994.AMeander DetailIt was a much freer technique. But glue and thread are not very durable, so I was looking for a material that was stiff on its own, and discovered the horsehair. The fiber provides the necessary strength and flexibility to construct embroidered compositions of lines and dots.
1986-1994.B
JAPAN 3 DetailMy work is less preplanned and more of a natural process: it grows. The production may seem as painstaking as weaving, but it is the immediacy of the process that is important to me. I make one element and give it a place on my wall, and then I make another element, so the work grows until I like it. The work itself is meticulous, but I see the construction of each individual element as just the beginning. After I have the pattern pinned on my wall, then the real work starts. In the beginning, it is like playing. Then, finally, I use water-soluble fabric and make a drawing on it, so I know how to attach the pieces. Then I use monofilament to attach the small pieces to each other, and finally it all becomes one big piece. You only need some pins at the top of the piece to hang it on the wall. When seen with the right amount of natural light, the work seems to float just in front of the wall, defying gravity.

1982-1986.A
Palimpsest 1, DetailMuch of my early work was inspired by calligraphy, but I explored the positive and negative, abstracted shapes created by calligraphic forms, instead of its narrative possibilities, It is very interesting when I cannot read the words — the rhythm of the writing, the space between the letters and the connections between the lines. It is still a source of inspiration, but my work has grown more abstract. Nature is more important than writing. Small circles, ovals and streaks grow into compositions that map positive and negative space.
 I am fascinated by dots, lines and contours, by their rhythmical movements and the empty spaces they confine. The shadow on a white wall is an essential part of my work. By leaving some space between my structure and the wall, the object is freed from its background and interacts with the white wall. I need the silence of a white wall.
 1982-1986.B
COLOR DOTS SPRING ZEELAND DetailAdvice I’d give to others: Be guided by what happens around you. Don’t try too hard to direct, plan, master everything. For me, it is more important to be led by what crosses your path, the accidental encounter, things that happen outside yourself.