Monthly archives: April, 2017

Art Televised: Mary Merkel-Hess on PBS’s Craft in America

April 20, 2017 0 Comment
Craft in America

Mary Merkel-Hess on PBS series Nature, Craft in America

This month, the PBS series, Craft in America, will premiere its episode titled “Nature,” which features profiles on internationally acclaimed artists who use dimensional art to explore nature’s marvels. Among these visionaries is fiber artist Mary Merkel-Hess, a participant in browngrotta arts’ upcoming exhibition, Still Crazy After All These Years…30 years in art, slated to run from April 22nd through April 30th at the browngrotta arts’ barn/gallery in Wilton, Connecticut.

A native of the Midwest, Mary Merkel-Hess’ home state of Iowa represents the creative force behind many of the art pieces she fashions. By drawing inspiration from the area’s prairie elements, including its vast fields of grass, corn, shrubs and herbs, she creates dimensional art pieces that translate her experiences and familiarity with the Midwest and its unique aesthetics. In fact, many of her abstract pieces are inspired by the images she captures and masterfully replicates from the prairie garden surrounding her home and workshop.

In Chephren's Temple

In Chephren’s Temple, Mary Merkel-Hess

Working with fiber and other materials, such as paper, wood, reed, and acrylic paint, Merkel-Hess creates what she refers to as “Landscape Reports,” fiber vessels that provide a sense of place and containment for the viewer to experience and enjoy. Her process involves building upon layers of paper with careful insertion of reed or cord, creating a mold that is then shaped and painted. Her fiber sculptures illustrate Iowa’s abundance of tall grass, fields and open green space, allowing others to bring a piece of the Midwest, as well as Merkel-Hess’ inspirational prairie garden, to their home.

Airing Friday, April 21, 2017, “Nature” will highlight Mary Merkel-Hess’ creative process, as well as that of other artists, sculptors and woodcarvers whose dimensional artwork challenges audiences to reassess their relationship to the natural world. Check you local PBS listings. You can view more samples of Merkel-Hess’ fiber artwork at http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/hess.php.

Artist RSVPs—International Artists Travel the World to Attend browngrotta’s Opening April 22nd

April 18, 2017 0 Comment

From across the globe to the beautiful rural and coastal landscape of Connecticut, artists traveling from four different countries and nine US states will attend browngrotta arts’ artist reception and opening this Saturday, April 22, 2017.

We are delighted to welcome these 16 national and international artists as we celebrate our 30th anniversary exhibition, Still Crazy After All These Years…30 years in art.

Jennifer Falck Linssen

Jennifer Falck Linssen

Wendy Wahl

Wendy Wahl

John McQueen

John McQueen

Blair Tate

Blair Tate

Nancy Koenigsberg

Nancy Koenigsberg

Tamiko Kawata

Tamiko Kawata

Lewis Knauss

Lewis Knauss

Mary Giles

Mary Giles

Mary Merkel-Hess

Mary Merkel-Hess

Norma Minkowitz

Norma Minkowitz

Ferne Jacobs

Ferne Jacobs

Gizella K Warburton

Gizella K Warburton

Hisako Sekijima

Hisako Sekijima

Kyomi Iwata

Kyomi Iwata

Jin-Sook So

Jin-Sook So

Helena Hernmarck

Helena Hernmarck

As with our world-renowned collection of art textiles, dimensional art pieces and mixed media, many of our visiting artists represent acreative blend of diverse cultures and countries from all over the world, including Helena Hernmarck, originally from Sweden, now Connecticut, who continues to work with weavers in Sweden to create her tapestries; Jin-Sook So, from Korea, who has also lived for more than two decades in Sweden; Hisako Sekijima of Yokohama, Japan; and Gizella K Warburton from the UK.

We’re also pleased to welcome the following artists who are traveling from across the United States, including California, Iowa, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Wisconsin, and of course our home state of Connecticut:

Each of the 16 artists expected to attend browngrotta arts’ artists reception and opening this Saturday will be available to offer insights into this unique combination of art forms, including textiles, sculptures, stitched work and sculptural baskets among others. Visit our Artists pages to learn more about our visiting artists’ techniques, inspirations and remarkable art forms.
The Artists Reception and Opening for Still Crazy After All These Years…30 Years in art is at browngrotta arts, 276 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT 06897, April 22nd, 1 pm to 6 pm.

Art Inside and Out: Sculpture featured at browngrotta arts’ 30th Anniversary

April 17, 2017 0 Comment

For our 30th anniversary exhibition, Still Crazy After All These Years…30 years in art, browngrotta arts will feature outdoor sculptures by two prominent international artists, Dawn MacNutt and Mariyo Yagi.

Dawn MacNutt Timeless Figure

Dawn MacNutt Timeless Figure. Photo by Tom Grotta

Dawn MacNutt, a native of the Canadian province Nova Scotia, incorporates an assortment of natural materials, such as twined willow, seagrass and copperwire, into each life-size sculpture. By crafting these column-like figures, MacNutt masterfully captures the beauty and frailty of the human form.

Bronze detail

Dawn MacNutt Bronze sculpture detail. Photo by Tom Grotta

Among MacNutt’s masterpieces is, 2000–2005, a series of figures of willow and seagrass, each standing at 5’8” inches high. As with many of her fiber sculptures, MacNutt’s Return to Delos illustrates the humancondition as a source of imperfections and vulnerabilities but also reveals that, through these flaws, humans connect with one another and thereby create a sense of identity. She achieves this sentiment by leaving her columns purposely unfinished so that bare sticks remain untied and left to reach out to the world surrounding them. browngrotta arts’ exhibition features one of MacNutt’s willow figures cast in bronze, a material used by early imperial cultures. The bronze version is nearly indistinguishable from its willow counterpart, but the bronze permits the installation to withstand outdoor weather conditions.

 

Mariyo sculpture

Mariyo Yagi A Cycle – Infinity, 2016. Photo by Tom Grotta

Mariyo Yagi of Kobe, Japan, uses a combination of rope, bamboo, metal, and even glass to fashion a series of spiraling art installationsthat embody her theory of nawalogy—onenessmade of diversity. Through her art installations, she examines how nawa, the modern Japanese word for “rope,” is not made using one strand but, rather, with a series of strands inthe form of a spiral. Similar to how communication and inter-exchange establisha community, her pieces demonstrate how the energy from spiral structuresimitates the links between heaven and earth, as well as DNA and the universe.  

stick sculpture

John McQueen Skew, stick sculpture, Photo by Tom Grotta

jute sculpture

Naoko Serino Existing- 2-D jute sculpture. Photo by Tom Grotta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


There are also many indoor sculptural works featured in Still Crazy After All These Years, including John McQueen’s stitched twig figure, Askew, and Naoko Serino’s ethereal floating square of jute. Learn more about these and other artists in the browngrotta arts’ 30th anniversary exhibition on our Artists page.

Make a Day of It: Still Crazy After All These Years and Other Events Nearby

April 14, 2017 0 Comment

We hope you’re planning a trip to browngrotta arts in Wilton, Connecticut to visit Still Crazy After All These Years…30 years in art between April 22nd and 30th. If you have some time, here are a few other nearby activities to consider:

exhibition catalogs

Suzanne McClelland and Beth Campbell at the Allrich Museum

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, just up the street from browngrotta arts at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, Connecticut, is presenting Suzanne McClelland’s exhibition Just Left Feel Right—a collection of McClelland’s selected artwork that spans her more than two-decade career. Now through September 4, viewers can witness how these textured art pieces collaborate to capture the eruptive and disparate voices of a shifting American vernacular and its effect on the ways humans communicate in our hyperkinetic time. Also on display at the museum is Beth Campbell’s My Potential Future Past. Campbell’s art forms range from drawings to sculptures and installations. She uses a series of objects to exploits the “what ifs” associated with the choices we make and how those choices shape who we eventually become.

Hours:

Wednesday through Monday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Closed Tuesday

Dr Seuss exhibition

Wilton Historical Society Dr Seuss political Cartoon

Dr. Seuss, Political Cartoons & the Battle over Isolationism vs. Intervention

Wilton Historical Society:

224 Danbury Road

Wilton, CT 06897

203.762.7257

Through compelling cartoons and historic prints, Wilton Historical Society’s Dr. Seuss, Political Cartoons & the Battle over Isolationism vs. Intervention exhibition illustrates the history of America’s shifting attitudes toward foreign policies and two major world wars. Now on display until October 15, this collection explores how, through creative cartooning, artists—like Dr. Seuss—portrayed America’s efforts to remain neutral during WWI, as well as its engagement in WWII.

Hours:

Tuesday through Saturday: 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Nearby activities: Annual Book Sale

Wilton Library’s Gigantic Spring Book Sale Fundraiser

Also in Wilton next weekend,

Gigantic Spring Book Sale Fundraiser

Wilton Library

137 Old Ridgefield Road

Wilton, CT 06897

April 22nd 7 a.m.–9 p.m.

April 23rd Noon–5 p.m.

April 24th 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

April 25th 10 a.m.–3 p.m.

The Wilton Book sale, Wilton library’s annual gigantic book sale, features more than 70,000 items sorted into more than 50 categories—mysteries, gardening, travel, and science fiction; gently used, collectible, rare books, DVD’s, CD’s and books on CD.

Katonah Museum of Art exhibition

Picturing Love: Photography’s Pursuit of Intimacy at the Katonah Museum of Art

Picturing Love: Photography’s Pursuit of Intimacy Exhibition; Interactive Picture Wall

Katonah Museum of Art:

134 Jay Street–Route 22

Katonah, NY 10536

914.232.9555

Now until June 25, the Katonah Museum of Art is presenting Picturing Love: Photography’s Pursuit of Intimacy. This collection includes photography from forty renowned and anonymous artists that have captured portrayals of intimacy among various people and relationships. Through these candid photographs, the exhibition investigates the formidable history of photography and how love is presented and imparted through the single act of taking a photo.

Inspired by its Picturing Love exhibition, the museum is also featuring a new interactive picture wall that transports guests into a real working photo studio. Guests pose for photographs and choose from a variety of themes, backdrops and materials to create images that express affection.

Hours:

Tuesday through Sunday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Closed Monday

Still Crazy After All These Years Preview: Stitch in Time – Embroidery

April 12, 2017 0 Comment

Embroidery stitches – deliberate and in flurries – feature prominently in the work of six of the artists in browngrotta arts’ upcoming exhibition, Still Crazy After All These Years…30 years in art, this April 22nd through April 30th.

Heidrun Schimmel Detail

”Was du Weiß auf Schwarz Besitzt
(text/textile/texture) by Heidrun Schimmel Detail, photo by Tom Grotta

Heidrun Schimmel from Germany creates her artwork, which features blizzards of stitches, entirely by hand. She believes her stitch work demonstrates how thread, through its length and quality, acts as a metaphor for human existence.

Åse Ljones embroidery

Sound of the fjord detail by Åse Ljones, photo by Tom Grotta

Different pattern sequences are incorporated by Åse Ljones of Norway into her art pieces. By doing so, she allows each small change in sequence to create a rhythm, tranquility, or excitement for the viewer to enjoy. “I often work in series,” she says, “and build large works from smaller pieces. The small changes in each work communicate and often strengthen the relation to one another.”

silk drawing by Scott Rothstein

Untitled by Scott Rothstein, photo by Tom Grotta

Scott Rothstein, whose work has been collected by the Metropolitan and the Philadelphia museum of art, blends minimal design and traditional materials to create ambiguous art forms that viewers must experience and interpret on their own. His embroideries feature brilliant colors and repeated stitches to add dimension.

horsehair thread sculpture

Grow – Grid 16.11 by Marian Bijlenga, photo by Tom Grotta

Marian Bijlenga of the Netherlands has a fascination with dots, lines and contours that is evident in her artwork. She playfully introduces unique contour lines of color and symmetry through her stitched work, using a variety of textile fabrics and materials, including paper, thread and horsehair. Rather 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.”

Adela Akers Small Blue Tapestry

Dark Horizon, 3016 by Adela Akers, photo by Tom Grotta

Delicately combining a series of horsehair, recycled wine foil, and acrylic paint, Adela Akers creates her embroidered pieces by hand with careful insertion of each fine material.“Even when I don’t know the outcome,” she says, “it is the transformation of the materials by the repetitive hand manipulation that leads me to the final expression.”

embroidered sculpture

Growth 2 by Anda Klancic, photo by Tom Grotta

Anda Klancic uses transparency and coloring to address the visual play of perception between the mimetic and the abstract. Her work in this collection, as well as in previous pieces, attempts to express the relationship between humanity and nature.
Slovenian artist Anda Klancic uses a combination of innovative embroidery techniques, many of which are patented under her name, allowing her to meticulously blend metal with cloth cotton or tree bark to fashion abstract pieces that crystallize the aesthesis of nature.

For more information and a complete artist’s list, please visit http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/calendar.php.

Still Crazy After All These Years…30 years in art Preview: Hello Again!

April 6, 2017 0 Comment

For our 30th anniversary exhibition, we’ve invited six artists that had worked with browngrotta arts in previous years. Three; Leon Niehues, John Garrett and Kari Lonning, work in vessel forms. Laura Foster Nicholson and Eva create weavings and Carol Shaw-Sutton sculptural forms of fiber.

Woven Open Neck by Leon Niehues. Photo by Tom Grotta

Leon Niehues, a studio basket maker, creates his vessel forms from the young white oak trees that grow in his immediate area of the Ozarks. While using traditional splint techniques, he has added new construction methods and simple design elements that dramatically change his oak baskets into exciting contemporary pieces. We’ve captured several samples of his designs in a catalog that features his work and that of Mary Merkel-Hess. View them at: http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/c15.php.

Emerging from Chaos by Kari Lønning. Photo by Tom Grotta

Best known for her double-walled constructions and a complex-weaving process she refers to as her “hairy technique,” Kari Lønning works extensively with graphic patterns, using both bold and subtle color schemes. Lønning’s work is also featured in a browngrotta arts’ exhibition catalog, Mary Giles/Kari Lønning, which can be viewed at http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/c11.php.

Age Basket No.4 by John Garrett, recycled metals. Photo by Tom Grotta

A weaver and teacher of experimental basketry, John Garrett’s weaving materials consist of aluminum, steel, brass, or cooper in slat or wire form. Many of his creative pieces are included in the permanent collections of museums nationwide. View samples of his weaving in our catalog, Dorothy Gill Barnes and John Garrett: http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/c14.php.

Being Here by Laura Foster Nicholson. Photo by Tom Grotta

Laura Foster Nicholson is a textile artist known for her powerful hand-woven tapestries that feature whimsical, engaging imagery. Her artwork is featured in several museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Denver Art Museum, among others. Nicholson was included in the 10th Wave II: New Textile and Fiber Wall Art: http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/c18.php.

Ist All History by Eva Vargo. Photo by Tom Grotta

Eva Vargö fuses paper and linen-thread materials into her weaving techniques to employ paper craft artwork. Many of her pieces are inspired by her own life experiences and also by integrating the various materials she discovers on her travels across the world. Vargö is from Sweden, but has lived in Korea as well as Japan. Vargo was included in the Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture: http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/c25.php

White Sound by Carol Shaw-Sutton. Photo by Tom Grotta

A participant in browngrotta arts’ 25 for the 25th: Glancing Back, Gazing Ahead http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/c25.php, Carol Shaw-Sutton creates sculptural forms of fiber. Her artwork often consists of personal narrative objects and installations that utilize both ancient and modern textile. Her new work focuses on our inter relationship to each other, which is reflected in images of the human form as organic flowing substance.

Still Crazy After All These Years…30 years in art runs from
April 22nd to 30th at browngrotta arts, 276 Ridgefield, Connecticut. For more information, visit: http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/calendar.php.

Art Assembled: Featured in March

April 2, 2017 0 Comment

Three sculptures and a assemblage of paper made up the offerings for New The Week at browngrotta arts in March.

89ks Looped vintage zipper tape and thread, approx. 7” x 35.5” x 16”, 2013 Photo by Tom Grotta

Karyl Sisson’s Looped, is a sinuous sculpture made of vintage zippers and tape. Sisson is preoccupied with useful objects from the past — sewing notions, women’s vanity items, paper drinking straws. In her art, they are given a post-functional future as forms and structures that suggest living organisms, indigenous architecture or ceramic vessels. Like Sisson,

20kn Interlacing Blue, Keiji Nio , nylon , 7.5” x 13” x 11”, 2013. Photo by Tom Grotta

for Interlacing Blue, Keiji Nio also used fiber tape, in his case nylon tape, to create a more formal geometric forms.

8rw Collider
Randy Walker
steel, nylon
29.75” x 31.5” x 12”, 2015.Photo by Tom Grotta

Randy Walker incorporates found objects into his work, re-envisoning them and giving them a new life as art, as here in Collider. In Emerging,

27ht Emerging, Hideho Tanaka, japanese carbon ink drawing, inkjet print, collage (cotton cloth which put a japanese tissue paper.), 17.125″ x 22.25″, 2013 Photo by Tom Grotta

Hideho Tanaka’s interest in creative forms peculiar to fiber materials, which emerge in time and space and yet which also metamorphose and disappear, is evident. In this work, he as combined Japanese carbon ink drawing, inkjet print, cotton cloth and Japanese tissue paper. All four of these artists will be among those featured in Still Crazy After All These Years…30 years in art, which opens at browngrotta arts on April 22nd. For a complete artist’s list visit http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/calendar.php.