Monthly archives: March, 2024

Art Assembled – New This Week in March

March 27, 2024 0 Comment

March was an eventful month at browngrotta arts! From celebrating Women’s History Month to gearing up for our upcoming spring exhibition, it was a month filled with excitement and anticipation. With Discourse: art across generations and continents (May 4 – 12, 2024) just around the corner, we’re eagerly counting down the days. Plus, we’ve been showcasing a diverse range of talented artists on our ‘New This Week’ series. Now, we’re here to give you a recap of everything we’ve covered so you can stay up to date.

Dive in for all the details!

Kyoko Kumai
45kk A Begining, Kyoko Kumai, stainless steel filaments, 7” x 7” x 7”, 2007; 44kk Beginning-C Thick, Kyoko Kumai, stainless steel filaments, 8.25″ x 8.25″ x 8.5″, 2023. Photo by Tom Grotta.

To start off the month, we highlighted art from renowned Japanese artist Kyoko Kumai. With a background in weaving, Kumai honed her craft over the years, refining her own techniques of interlacing and knotting. Since 1975, she has been exploring the possibilities of stainless steel filaments – resulting in mesmerizing pieces that exude an ethereal, weightless quality, evoke a sense of movement and garner her international acclaim.

It’s been an absolute honor for us to collaborate with such a talented artist, and we couldn’t wait to share her work with all of you this month.

Tsuruko Tanikawa
1tt Imyo, Tsuruko Tanikawa, coiled and burned brass and iron wire , 22″ x 21″ x 4″, 1994. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Up next in March, we then turned our spotlight to the late, gifted artist Tsuruko Tanikawa. Tanikawa’s profound exploration of space, shade, and light was deeply rooted in her use of metal, which she described as simultaneously open and interconnected.

“I am interested both in a part in light and in a part in shadow,” said Tsuruko Tanikawa. “The shape of my work is made by deleting a part from a complete form.”

It was a privilege to delve into Tanikawa’s remarkable body of work and share her artistic journey with you this month.

Caroline Bartlett
9cb Mnemonic, Caroline Bartlett, wooden canvas stretchers, battening, stretched linen, pigment, 16″ x 52″, 2003. Photo by Tom Grotta.

We then turned our focus to UK artist, Caroline Bartlett. Bartlett delves deep into the historical, social, and cultural dimensions of textiles, delving into their tactile significance and their unique capacity to evoke memory.

In her practice, she masterfully blends techniques, imprinting, stitching, erasing, and reworking cloth, seamlessly integrating textiles with other media like porcelain.

We’re thrilled to announce that Bartlett is among the esteemed lineup of 50+ artists to be showcased in our forthcoming exhibition, Discourse. We can’t wait to present her captivating work to you firsthand!

Irina Kolesnikova
13ik Photoatelier #13, Irina Kolesnikova, flax, silk, hand woven, 15.5″ x 11.75″; 20″ x 16″, frame, 2004. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Finishing off the month strong, we featured the work of artist Irina Kolesnikova. Originally from Russia and now based in Germany, Kolesnikova brings a unique perspective to her textile creations.

Her pieces often delve into the interplay of color and texture, weaving together a narrative that resonates deeply with viewers. Kolesnikova’s exploration extends to black-and-white photography, where she cleverly integrates silhouettes, attire details, and occupational symbols into her collages, which are then translated into intricate weavings.

In her own words, her creations offer a glimpse into her alter ego—a whimsical, slightly awkward character navigating the complexities of life.

Kolesnikova is another talented artist that will be featured in Discourse this May, so be sure to mark your calendars to see her work for yourselves!

Thank you for joining us on this remarkable journey. Stay tuned for more updates, insights, and artistic discoveries in the months ahead. Until then, keep exploring, keep creating, and keep embracing the beauty of art in all its forms.

Art Out and About

March 20, 2024 0 Comment

This Spring in Connecticut brings an abundance of daffodils and in the US and abroad a slew of art exhibitions. From Scotland to San Francisco to Seoul, we’ve rounded up some suggestions for you:

Jane Balsgaard
April 6 – May 5, 2024
Vejle Kunstforening
Søndermarksvaj 1
Vejle, Denmark 7100 
https://www.vejlekunstforeningmoellen.dk/

Jane Balsgaard paper and glass boat
Glass and handmade paper Boat by Jane Balsgaard. Photo by Jane Balsgaard

This exhibition of Jane Balsgaard’s art work of glass twigs and plant paper will open in Velje, Denmark this April.

Four Stories of Swedish Textile: Inger Bergstöm, Jin Sook So, Katka Beckham Ojala, Takao Momijama
March 20 – April 2, 2024
Suaenyo 339,
339 Pyeongchang-gil, Jongno-gu
Seoul, Korea 
http://sueno339.com/?ckattempt=1

Jin Sook Blue Wall painting
Blue and Gold electroplated wall textile by Jin-Sook So. Photo by Jin-Sook So

This is an exhibition of four very different art practices, including work in stainless steel mesh by Jin-Sook So. “Using textiles as an artistic medium opens up a world of possibilities, interpretations and expectations,” write the exhibition’s curators. “How the individual artist works in this realm is unpredictable and can lead to totally different genres and contexts. The exhibition, 4T – Four Swedish Stories of Textile, shows the works of a group of artists who despite their different expressions are united by an interest specifically for textile surfaces.”

Andy Warhol: The Textiles
Through May 18, 2024
Dovecot Studios
10 Infirmary Street
Edinburgh, SCOTLAND EH1 1LT
https://dovecotstudios.com/whats-on/andy-warhol-the-textiles

Andy Warhol Textiles
Andy Warhol Artworks © 2024 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Licensed by DACS, London.

Andy Warhol: The Textiles takes viewers on a journey through the unknown and unrecorded world of designs by the influential artist before his Silver Factory days. As the originators explain, by showcasing over 35 of Warhol’s textile patterns from the period, depicting an array of colorful objects; ice cream sundaes, delicious toffee apples, colorful buttons, cut lemons, pretzels, and jumping clowns, this exhibition demonstrates how textile and fashion design was a crucial stage in Warhol becoming one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century. A book accompanies the exhibition: Warhol: The Textiles.

Irresistible: The Global Patterns of Ikat
Through June 1, 2024
George Washington University and Textile Museum
701 21st St. NW
Washington, DC 20052 
museuminfo@gwu.edu

Irresistible Americas installation
Irresistible Americas photo by Kacey Chapman

Prized worldwide for producing vivid patterns and colors, the ancient resist-dyeing technique of ikat developed independently in communities across Asia, Africa and the Americas, where it continues to inspire artists and designers today. This exhibition explores the global phenomenon of ikat textiles through more than 70 masterful examples — ancient and contemporary — from countries as diverse as Japan, Indonesia, India, Uzbekistan, Côte d’Ivoire and Guatemala. Included are works by Polly Barton, Isabel Toledo, and Ed Rossbach.

Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art
Through June 16, 2024
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/weaving-abstraction-in-ancient-and-modern-art

Lenore Tawney in the Center of MET exhibit
Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo by Hyla Skopitz

The process of creating textiles has long been a springboard for artistic invention. In Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art, two extraordinary bodies of work separated by at least 500 years are brought together to explore the striking connections between artists of the ancient Andes and those of the 20th century. The exhibition displays textiles by four distinguished modern practitioners—Anni Albers, Sheila Hicks, Lenore Tawney, and Olga de Amaral—alongside pieces by Andean artists from the first millennium BCE to the 16th century.

On and Off the Loom: Kay Sekimachi and 20th Century Fiber Art
Lecture and Video with Melissa Leventon and Ellin Klor
April 20. 2024
1 p.m. EDT
de Young Museum
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA 94118
https://www.textileartscouncil.org/post/on-and-off-the-loom-kay-sekimachi-and-20th-century-fiber-art

Kay Sekimachi Kiri Wood Paper Vessel
Kiri Wood Paper Vessel by Kay Sekimachi. Photo by Tom Grotta

Kay Sekimachi is esteemed as an innovator in contemporary fiber art. Her vision has had an impact on many outstanding artists. Sekimachi came of age at a boom time for fiber art, when many artists were experimenting with dimensional weaving both on and off the loom and were challenging old art world hierarchies in the process. In this talk in person and on Zoom, Melissa Leventon will discuss Sekimachi’s oeuvre within the wider context of fiber art in the 20th century.

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction
Through July 28, 2024
National Art Gallery
East Building, Concourse Galleries
4th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 
https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2024/woven-histories-textiles-modern-abstraction.html

Ed Rossbach Weaving and basket
Ed Rossbach, Damask Waterfall, 1977, LongHouse Reserve, © Ed Rossbach, photo © Charles Benton, courtesy The Artist’s Institute. Ed Rossbach, Lettuce Basket, 1982, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. Milton and Martha Dalitzky (M.2021.163.1), © Ed Rossbach, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.

This transformative exhibition has moved from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the National Gallery in DC. It explores how abstract art and woven textiles have intertwined over the past hundred years.This transformative exhibition explores how abstract art and woven textiles have intertwined over the past hundred years. In the 20th century, textiles have often been considered lesser—as applied art, women’s work, or domestic craft. Woven Histories challenges the hierarchies that often separate textiles from fine arts. Putting into dialogue some 160 works by more than 50 creators from across generations and continents, including Katherine Westphal, Dorothy Gill Barnes, and Ed Rossbach, this exhibition explores the contributions of weaving and related techniques to abstraction, modernism’s preeminent art form.  The book that accompanies the exhibition, Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction, can be found on our website.

Noteworthy: Scottish Tapestry by Jo Barker and Sara Brennan

March 13, 2024 0 Comment
Sara Brennan and Jo Barker portraits by Tom Grotta

Welcome to Noteworthy, the first in an occasional series on topics we think are worth a closer look. In number one, our focus is on Jo Barker and Sara Brennan, two contemporary tapestry artists from Scotland.

Sara Brennan, Journey Trees III and IV, linens and swing threads, 8″ x 8″ x 1″ (each), 2021. Photo by Tom Grotta

Scotland has a storied tapestry tradition, from the well-regarded Dovecot Tapestry Studio, founded in 1912, to the program at the College of Art at the University of Edinburgh. The country’s most ambitious entry is the Great Tapestry of Scotland (though technically an embroidery). It was hand stitched on linen woven by Peter Greig & Co in Kirkaldy, who have been at it since 1825. It involved 1000 people from across the country, 160 linen panels, and 300 miles of wool – enough to stretch the entire length of Scotland. 

11jb Flow, Jo Barker
cotton, wool, woven, linen, silk and embroidery threads, 28.5” x 54”, 2015, photo by Tom Grotta

Two of the artists that work with browngrotta artists, Jo Barker and Sara Brennan, studied together at the College of Art in Edinburgh where the basic assumption is that tapestry can be used as a visually rich and dynamic medium in contemporary art practice. 

38b Broken White band with Pale Blue II, Sara Brennan, linen, wool and cotton, 30″ x 30″ x 2″, 2012. Photo by Tom Grotta

Barker and Brennan were born in the same year and their studios are in the same building in Edinburgh now. They exhibited together in A Considered Place at Drum Castle in Aberdeenshire a few years ago. Both artists are accomplished and well recognized — Barker is a recipient of the Cordis Prize for Tapestry. Each creates elegant, evocative works that provide a painterly experience from a distance and a remarkably tactile encounter up close. Their approaches to tapestry, however, vary, particularly their use of color. 

9jb Resonance, Jo Barker, woven on cotton warp using wool, cotton, linen, silk and embroidery threads, 41″ x 67.25″, 2009. Photo by Tom Grotta

Jo Barker begins by taking photographs and drawing designs — often influenced by the Scottish countryside where she likes to walk. She builds collages with her images, manipulating them online and capturing gestural movement and deep color. The artist is interested in qualities and patterns of light: transient and ephemeral starting points translated slowly into woven form. She sees contradictions between the flowing nature of ink and paint and the illusion of fluidity translated into soft, richly colored yarns. “The finished images are consciously abstract and ambiguous. I want to create a sense of something as opposed to an identifiable object or picture,” she says. 

40sb Old Blue and Brown Bands – Series I , Sara Brennan, wools, linens and silk, 14” x 35” x 1.25”, 2020. Photo by Tom Grotta

Sara Brennan is also inspired by landscape, responding with a very simplified and reduced use of form. “My work has vertical and horizontal blocks,” she says, “lines and areas that can be traced back through all my work. There is also a consistent color palette. One or two predominant colors, a slight twist to some of the lines, a hidden line of red and yellow giving a subtle definition. I use different whites to change the planes ,..” Brennan weaves from her own drawings, no digital manipulation is involved. “Choosing each yarn is as important to me and the tapestry as making the original drawing,” she explains. “The yarn must work to help balance and convey the feel and mood. It is vital in the interpretation of the drawing, bringing the tapestry to life …”

13jb Cobalt Haze, Jo Barker, woven on cotton warp using wool, cotton, linen, silk and embroidery threads
15” x 33.5”, 2010. photo by Tom Grotta

You’ll find more about these artists at browngrotta.com.

A Pop-Up is a Good Op

March 6, 2024 0 Comment
Two Vermettes, Two offices
Claude Vermette’s water color Maligne Lake, 1979 and Mariette Rousseau-Vermette’s tapestry Electricity/Energy, 1994. Photo by Tom Grotta

If Wikipedia is to be believed, Pop-Up art exhibitions began in 2007 in New York City. They now occur all over they world. Pop-ups are generally temporary events, less formal than a gallery or a museum, often using unusual spaces. Their popularity has boomed since the oughts, including Banksy’s Dismaland which collected work by 58 artists in a rundown seaside town in the UK in 2015, Yasoi Kusama’s room that exploded with flowers in Melbourne, Australia in 2018, the Museum of Ice Cream (not technically a museum) currently in several locations including Miami, Boston and Singapore, and The Color Factory in New York City, Houston, and Chicago. Pop-Ups are often immersive, interactive, and collaborative like Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, which began in 2008 as a small collective of artists sharing an interest in publicly displaying their works and developing their skills. Meow Wolf now aims to “redefine the paradigm of art and storytelling to make a positive difference in the world.”

Out of Focus Series by Grethe Sørensen
White Shell Tongue I & II, 2006 prints by Federica Luzzi and Out of Focus tapestries by Grethe Sørensen, 2007. Photo by Tom Grotta

Fast forward to 2024: browngrotta arts has its own Pop-Up of sorts at JUICE Creative Group in Norwalk, CT. JUICE handles our social media, website development, event planning and other miscellany. It has loads of clients coming into its business and rental studio space each week. Now, select Juice visitors are able to view (and acquire) JUICE Art, a specially assembled group of works from artists who work with browngrotta arts.

Warren Seelig installation
Warren Seelig’s White Wheel, 1996 and Small Double Ended, 1996. Photo by Tom Grotta

In curating the collection, we were mindful of the JUICE ethos. It’s a brand and digital agency based in the US, with team members all over the world. JUICE takes pride in the team of brand experts, designers, marketers and tech geeks it’s built, and the vibrant creative culture it has fostered. To reflect that creativity and energy, we suggested works like Grethe Sorensen’s Out of Focus that references pixels from printing, Warren Seelig’s mechanical sculptures, Small Double-Ended and White Wheel, Gyöngy Laky’s playful Beach Sketch, made of electrical tape wrapped branches and Electricity/Energy by Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, a tapestry that incorporates wire.

Sekiji, Laky and Seelig in the corner office
From left to right works by Toshio Sekiji, NYT Collage, 1997, Gyöngy Laky, Beach Sketch, 1987, Warren Seelig, Shadowfield/ Colored Light Single, 2017. Photo by Tom Grotta

Printed pages are another theme; the agency produces a lot of textual content. There are collages made of books and newspapers by Toshio Sekiji; works by Wendy Wahl of encyclopedia pages, and an interesting work by Mercedes Vicente that mixes string and spiral notebook pages and “hints” at writing. Photography, too, was a theme. In a room clients use, we placed a textile triptych made of photo images of Japanese tile roofs that are fragmented, silk screened, and metal-leafed made by Glen Kaufman along with works of paper by Gizella Warburton. On a floor of offices, there are photographs of fiber sculptures by Federica Luzzi, White Shell Tongue 1 and 2 beside a graphic tapestry by Gudrun Pagter.

John McQueen in the conference room
In the conference room, Intimate Domain, 2019 by John McQueen

In deciding what to display, we also collaborated with the JUICE team, including some works by artists they chose. John McQueen is a favorite of several team members. We included Intimate Domain, which includes a tree made of repurposed plastic surrounded by a frame made of small branches and cable ties and also Treed, a depiction of a tree where the drawing creeps off the page an onto the frame. Another popular artist was Canadian painter and ceramist Claude Vermette. There are two of his large canvases, one triptych and one small water color hung throughout the space. Also on the team’s list, works by Keiji Nio, Jo Barker, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Jiro Yonezawa, Chiyoko Tanaka and Jennifer Falck Linssen.

Claude Vermette and Gudren Pageter
Claude Vermette. Clairière, 1992 painting, Gudren Pagter, Thin Green Line , 2017 tapestry, Toshio Sekiji, Black Collage, 1998. Photo by Tom Grotta

For us, a Pop-Up is a Good Op. The JUICE space looks better, clients and staff appreciate the work, and we get more eyeballs for some great works of art!