Monthly archives: November, 2018

Art Assembled: New This Week November

November 28, 2018 0 Comment
Markings and Blues, Adela Akers, linen, horsehair, metal and paint, 28” X 30”, 2018. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Markings and Blues, Adela Akers, linen, horsehair, metal and paint, 28” X 30”, 2018. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Fall is coming to a close and the winter months are approaching here at browngrotta arts. During the end of October and throughout the beginning of November, Tom and Carter and sometimes Rhonda, traveled around the UK and Europe capturing artists at work in their studios. Though these ventures were grand they didn’t deter us from sharing our New This Week posts. Stay tuned for more blog posts on Tom’s, Rhonda’s and Carter’s photo adventure in the coming months, but for now take a minute and read more about the art we shared this month on our social media.

We commenced November with Adela Akers’ eye-catching Markings and Blues. As in her other pieces, Akers has incorporated horsehair into Markings and Blues. Employing stiff horsehair in her work helps Akers add both texture and dimensionality, two characteristics which create a richer surface and draw focus to her work. In recent years, Akers has drawn inspiration from her life journeys. These journeys have had a transformative effect, increasing her self-confidence, expanding her artistic vision and helping her to create pieces such as Markings and Blues.

Kaze, Yasuhisa Kohyama, ceramic, 14.75” x 11.5” x 4.75”, 2017. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Kaze, Yasuhisa Kohyama, ceramic, 14.75” x 11.5” x 4.75”, 2017. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Next up, Kaze by Japanese ceramic artist Yasuhisa Kohyama. Like Kohyama’s other ceramic pieces, Kaze was made with using an anagama kiln, a traditional Japanese wood-firing kiln. Kohyama revitalized the use of the anagama kiln and has become a Sueki master. Though the ceramic is left unglazed with the Sueki method, the resulting surface appears glossy. The piece’s form is perfectly reflected in its name—Kaze; a word that represents things that enjoy the freedom of movement.

Green Blue Screen One, Tamiko Kawata, cardboard, safety pins, acrylic on canvas, 20” x 20”, 2018. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Green Blue Screen One, Tamiko Kawata, cardboard, safety pins, acrylic on canvas, 20” x 20”, 2018. Photo by Tom Grotta.

The stark contrast between the bright background and glistening safety pins of Tamiko Kawata’s Green Blue Screen One also caught our eye in November. Safety pins hold a multifunctional purpose for Kawata. Upon her move to New York in the 1960s, Kawata utilized safety pins for their unassuming, everyday purpose: to pin up clothing that was too large for her small frame. However, over time Kawata developed a fascination for the medium. The pins have facilitated Kawata in her exploration and construction of drawing-like works, self-standing, three-dimensional forms and jewelry. The physical practice of creating complex pieces with simple utilitarian objects provides a meditative and reflective process for Kawata.

Hunting (Jagtmark), Ane Henriksen, Scottish wool, weft: worn out clothes , 65” x 92”, 2017. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Hunting (Jagtmark), Ane Henriksen, Scottish wool, weft: worn out clothes, 65” x 92”, 2017. Photo by Tom Grotta.

We concluded the month of November with Hunting (Jagtmark) by Ane Henriksen. The piece, which spans over 7.5 feet, was woven using Scottish wool and weft: old worn-out hunting clothes. Henriksen’s inspiration for Hunting derived from a painting by the Danish artist Jens Soendergaard. “I saw so much lust and longing in his green landscape,” explains Henriksen. As mentioned, Hunting is made of worn-out hunting clothes, some of which are undergarments, illustrating the different ways and fields in which hunting takes place.

Art in situ – Helena Hernmarck at the Aldrich Museum through January 13, 2019

November 21, 2018 0 Comment

Helena Hernmarck describes the yarn she sources from Sweden at the opening of Helena Hernmarck: Weaving in Progress. Photo by Tom Grotta, courtesy browngrotta arts

A unique view into Helena Hernmarck’s artistic practice is on exhibit at the Aldrich Museum up the road from us in Ridgefield, Connecticut for four more weeks. In addition to showing 20 tapestries created over 40 years by Hernmarck, the Museum has replicated a wall of her studio with a large photograph, installed one of the artist’s smaller looms and invited her and her assistant, Mae Coburn, to complete a weaving onsite. We were at the well-attended opening of the exhibition and particularly appreciated the portion of the exhibit that illustrates her process – from inspiration to drawing to yarn selection to final work. As the Museum describes it: “An inventory of the wool used in the process will be on view, along with a display of materials from the artist’s archive, including photographs, watercolors, drawings, prototype samples, and other ephemera that illustrate and inform Hernmarck’s process and the evolution of her career.”

Process documents–inspiration, drawings, color swatches — preparation for a Hernmarck tapestry. Photo by Tom Grotta, courtesy browngrotta arts

In creating a work, Hernmarck plots the amount of weaving she needs to complete each day on graph paper. She told CT Post in October that when first learning to weave, she knew she wanted to create large-scale works. “I decided that if I could weave one square meter a week, I could live on it. And it’s almost true. I made it coarser [using multiple strands] so I could go faster,” she told the newspaper. That bundling has set Hernmarck’s work apart. “Depending on how she twists the strands and what colors and thicknesses she chooses, she is said to be able to give her tapestries unprecedented depth and complexity. One critical essay described them as almost pointillist,” wrote Joel Lang, “Ridgefield weaver Helena Hernmarck and her loom preside over Aldrich exhibit,” CT Post, October 18, 2018.

Exhibition view from Helena Hernmarck: Weaving in Progress, at the Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT. Photo by Tom Grotta, courtesy browngrotta arts.

Working at the Museum three to four days in a row has required a slight change in approach, Hernmarck says. “It is fun that so many are coming,” including textile enthusiasts and art classes, but hard to get the weaving done as planned while answering all the questions.

Don’t miss the opportunity to see Hernmarck’s art creation in action. The Aldrich is at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877, Tel 203.438.4519; general@aldrichart.org.

The in-residence days are:
November: 23, 24, 28, 29, 30
December: 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29
January: 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12

Dispatches: Studio Visits UK

November 15, 2018 0 Comment

During the end of October and beginning of November, Tom and Carter traveled throughout the UK on a photo adventure, capturing eight artists at work From London to Derbyshire to Chesterfield, Bristol and New Hebden Bridge. They experienced the countryside, the railway system, local cuisine and the graciousness of the artists they visited. Each studio space was unique — from Laura Ellen Bacon’s wee “treehouse” to Susie Gillespie’s compound in a converted cider mill to Chris Drury’s charming cottage. The artists were extremely generous with their time and thoughts. We are hoping to compile the photos in a series of books one day. In the meantime, enjoy a quick view of our extraordinary trip.

Susie Gillespie’s Barn

New Hebden Bridge

Cemetery in New Hebden Bridge by Sue Lawty’s Studio

Photographing the art at dinner in London after photographing Caroline Bartletts studio

Kings Cross London on the way to photographing Rachel Maxs studio

Photographing an outdoor land sculpture by Chris Drury

Carter carrying into the barn a Laura Ellen Bacon Basket for a photographing

Manor Farm Dethick after photographing Laura Ellen Bacon on the way to Gizella Warburtons studio

Leaving Gizella Warburtons studio after a full day photo session

On our way to Dail Behennah studio in Bristol

After dinner in Bristol

Susie Gillespie’s weaving studio for her students

Art Assembled: New This Week October

November 7, 2018 0 Comment
Liminal, Tim Johnson, esparto grass, recycled braided fishing line , 44” x 36.5” x 3”, 2018. Photo by Tom Grotta

Liminal, Tim Johnson, esparto grass, recycled braided fishing line , 44” x 36.5” x 3”, 2018. Photo by Tom Grotta.

October flew by in the blink of an eye at browngrotta arts. On queue this month were remarkable pieces by Tim Johnson, Ferne Jacobs, Carole Fréve and Lawrence LaBianca.

We kicked off October with Tim Johnson’s Liminal. Woven from esparto grass and recycled fishing line, Johnson’s piece explores liminality, the state of being between two places or phases. Johnson, who is based on the Mediterranean coast of Catalonia, is constantly experimenting with new materials and techniques. Johnson’s incessant experimentation and deep appreciation for traditional weaving helps him to to create innovative work paying homage to historical weaving methods.

Open Globe, Ferne Jacobs, coiled and twined wax linen thread, 13” x 13”, 2001. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Open Globe, Ferne Jacobs, coiled and twined wax linen thread, 13” x 13”, 2001. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Ferne Jacobs’ detailed linen sculpture Open Globe was next up on the queue. In Open Globe Jacobs’ mixes greens and browns along with other colors to reproduce the assortment of colors that make up the earth’s surface. The title, “Open Globe,” “came from experiencing the piece as I was making it, in my mind, it was the earth. The colors — green, brown, bluish-grey — are the elements on our planet,” explains Jacobs. “Open is because the work has no bottom or top. So can we see the earth as a globe/ball, open/unending.”

Knitted incalmo II (Double Green), Carole Frève, blown and kiln cast glass, knitted and electroformed copper, 26.5” x 9” x 21”, 2010. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Knitted incalmo II (Double Green), Carole Frève, blown and kiln cast glass, knitted and electroformed copper, 26.5” x 9” x 21”, 2010. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Next up, Carole Fréve’s blown glass and electroformed copper duo Knitted incalmo II. Combining glass and copper, two materials that are not traditionally united, allows Fréve to create vessels that both contrast and complement each other. The symbolically paired duos will have a glass piece with “a copper ‘twin’, knitted just like a wool sweater, with knitting needles and copper wire,” notes Jean Frenette of SofaDeco.

Window Tree, Lawrence LaBianca California Redwood, glass with image of an actual tree that was ground up and is now between the panes, steel 75.5” x 21.25” x 18.75”, 2010. Photo by Tom Grotta

Window Tree, Lawrence LaBianca
California Redwood, glass with image of an
actual tree that was ground up and is now
between the panes, steel
75.5” x 21.25” x 18.75”, 2010. Photo by Tom Grotta.

To conclude October we shared Lawrence LaBianca’s Window Tree. Like much of LaBianca’s work, Window Tree explores humankind’s relationship with nature. LaBianca’s childhood was split between rural Maine and bustling New York City, the stark contrast between these two places left him with “a profound interest in the dichotomy between communities in which people work close to nature, and the alienation of an urban, technological society.” Window Tree’s glass panels, which hold the remnants of an old California Redwood, display an image of of the exact tree that lies between the panels.