Category: Basketry

The Next Big Thing: Green from the Get Go: International Contemporary Basketmakers

November 17, 2011 0 Comment

Jiro Yonezawa bamboo Bridge and Kay Sekimachi Leaf bowl. photo by Tom Grotta

We’ve had a busy fall season at browngrotta arts. First was Stimulus: art and its inception, which you can still see in the catalog http://www.
browngrotta.com/Pages/c36.php and online through the end of the month http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/StimulusOnlineExhibit.php. Next up, is Green from the Get Go: International Contemporary Basketmakers at the Wayne Art Center, Pennsylvania http://www.
wayneart.org/exhibition/green-from-the-get-go-international-contemporary-basketmakers which runs from December 2, 2011 to January 21, 2012.  Green from the Get Go is curated by Jane Milosch, former curator of the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum in collaboration with browngrotta arts. The exhibition features an exciting compilation of more than 40 works by artists who take inspiration from nature and the history of basketry. Since prehistoric times artists and craftspeople have been highly attuned to the beauty and resources of the natural world, whether depicting a pristine landscape, untouched by man, or harvesting plants and minerals for pigments and brushes. Sustainability is part of the design and craft process, which requires a heightened sensitivity to materials, one that honors the caring for, replenishing and repurposing of materials. Artist Dorothy Gill Barnes captures this eco-friendly position well when she explains, “my intent is to construct a vessel or related object using materials respectfully harvested from nature.”

CROSSING OVER Dona Anderson bamboo kendo (martial art sticks), patterned paper, thread 15″ x 94″ x 30″ 2008. photo by Richard Nicol

 

Some of the sculptural baskets in Green from the Get Go are made from both flora and fauna, from bamboo, pine, sea grass, and willow to emu feathers and bayberry thorns. The tactile nature of these fiberous works stimulates all of the senses—sight, smell, touch and even sound. Each maker brings his or her own conceptual approach and expression to the design and fabrication process. Some works are small enough to nestle in the hand or rest table-top, while others are monumental or hang on the wall. Green from the Get Go stretches our imagination in terms of what materials and forms constitute a basket and how art bespeaks the interconnected relationship of man and nature.

The exhibition includes artists from Australia, Canada, Japan, the UK, Scandinavia and the US, featuring innovators in the genre of 20th-century art basketry as well as emerging talent: Dona Anderson, Jane Balsgaard, Dorothy Gill Barnes,Dail Behennah. Nancy Moore Bess, Birgit Birkkjaer, Jan Buckman, Chris Drury, Lizzie Farey, Ceca Georgieva, Marion Hildebrandt, Kiyomi Iwata, Christine Joy, Virginia Kaiser, Markku Kosonen, Gyöngy Laky, Dawn MacNutt,  John McQueen, Mary Merkel-Hess, Norma Minkowitz, Valerie Pragnell, Ed Rossbach, Hisako Sekijima, Kay Sekimachi, Naoko Serino, Klaus Titze, Jiro Yonezawa and Masako Yoshido.

PILLOW, Norma Minkowitz, fiber, wood, paint, 2011

 

The preview party for Green from the Get Go: International Contemporary Basketmakers and Craftforms 2011, juried by Elisabeth Agros of the Philadelphia Art Museum, takes place on the evening of December 2nd and we’ll be there. For more in formation, contact the Wayne Art Center: http://www.wayneart.org/events/?id=48.

Spinning Straw Into Gold: ACC Gold Medalists and Fellows at SOFA Chicago and Online

October 30, 2011 0 Comment

5R CEDAR EXPORT BUNDLE. Ed Rossbach, plaited cedar bark from Washington state with heat transfer drawing, waxed linen, rayon and rags, 5.5″ x 11″ x 9″, 1993, ©Tom Grotta, 2011

This year at SOFA Chicago (November 4-6) the American Craft Council (ACC) will recognize 28 artists who have been awarded an ACC Gold Medal between 1994 and 2010 in a display at the Navy Pier, curated by Michael Monroe. The ACC awards recognize those who have demonstrated outstanding artistic achievement and leadership in the field for 25 years or more.  Since 1981, the ACC has selected just under four dozen artists working in Fiber to receive a Gold Medal for consummate craftsmanship and/or join its College of Fellows.  We’ve mounted an online exhibition of 21 these artists on our website, browngrotta.com, under Awards. Many of these artists are featured in the catalogs published by browngrotta arts and in the videos and other publications we offer. http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/catalogs.php Works by Fellows and Medalists  Adela Akers, Dorothy Gill Barnes , Lia Cook, Helena Hernmarck, Gyöngy Laky, John McQueen and Norma Minkowitz are featured in our current exhibition,  Stimulus: art and its inception. Enjoy the show.

 

Press News: Stimulus: art and its inception — our 40th catalog now available

October 23, 2011 0 Comment

Stumulus catalog front and back covers

We are very (and this will date me) jazzed about our 40th catalog, Stimulus: art and its inception. It’s a departure for us, not in the variety of artists and number of countries represented — sculpture, ceramics, art textiles and mixed media by 55 artists from 14 countries — but in what’s new — images and statements designed to give readers a sense of each artist’s creative process. For each of the pieces highlighted in exhibition, the process of finding an image to illustrate the genesis  — whether an event, an object, an emotion, a place —  and of working with the artists to share something of that process in words, was stimulating for Tom and me.  We were also energized by working with Jane Milosch, Director, Provenance Research Initiative, Smithsonian Institution, and former curator, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, who writes about creativity and its embodiment in this exhibition in the introductory essay.

Stimulus Catalog: Norma Minkowitz Compound with Stimulus

The stimuli identified by the artists in this catalog is diverse. Current events, like the earthquake in Japan and global warming, inspired some of the artists,  including Norma Minkowitz, whose stitched wall work, Compound, illustrates the attack on Osama Bin Laden. “I began in a spontaneous, unplanned manner,” Minkowitz explains, “arranging lines and subtle patterns, until I had a feeling of the direction it would take. Suddenly the linear image took on the apparition of an aerial view of the compound that I had seen in a newspaper article. Compound combines a replica of the space and my vision of the event.”

Mcqueen, Bess, LaBianca, Serino, Henriksen, Akers, Bijlenga, Hunt, Walker

Several artists, including John McQueen, Nancy Moore Bess, Lawrence La Bianca and Naoko Serino of Japan, have taken Nature as their inspiration. In Serino’s case, Generating-3 was inspired by a Philodendron selloum, which she tended for 22 years before it finally bloomed. Others were inspired by the efforts of previous artists.  Ane Henriksen of Denmark, considered the work of coverlet makers from the 1800s; Adela Akers‘ work references Mbuti designs from Africa. Palimpsest 1, a wall piece by Marian Bijlenga, of the Netherlands, was composed by following the pinholes on the walls of Dutch masterweaver Herman Scholten’s studio to recreate the nearly erased surface.
Still other artists looked to their immediate surroundings. Trio 4, a sculpture of twine and newspaper by Kate Hunt, was inspired by the goats who share her studio. Echoed Surface, an energy-charged object by Randy Walker, was made from a charred and deformed badminton racquet that he found near his home;  Re-Tire,  is a basket Dona Anderson created from a tire chain she found by the roadside.
The catalog is 140 pages and contains 197 color photographs.  It can be purchased on our website: http://browngrotta.com/Pages/c36.php

 

September Site-ings from New York to LA and Como to Cheongju

September 13, 2011 0 Comment

rush-hour-shanghai, photo by Grethe Sorensen

September offers an abundance of exhibition openings of interest. On Sunday the 11th, Connecting opened at the Ostrobothnian Museum in Finland (Museokatu 3 – 4, 65100, Vaasa, Finland; +358 (0)6 325 3800; http://museo.vaasa.fi/w/?lang=3&page=9. Ending on November 27th, the exhibition features 40 artists from Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Germany, including Grethe Sørensen.

Serino_japan society

On Friday the 16th, it’s Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers at the Japan Society in New York (333 East 47th Street, (212) 832-1155; http://www.japansociety.org/gallery, through ). Six artists represented by browngrotta arts — Kiyomi Iwata, Naomi Kobayashi, Kyoko Kumai, Hisako Sekijima, Naoko Serino and Hideho Tanaka — are included. (We’ll have more on the opening and the exhibition next week).

Aerie by Lizzie Farey, photo by Tom Grotta

On Wednesday September 21st the Cheongju Biennale opens in Korea (through November 30th; http://eng.okcj.org/home/contents/view.do?menuKey=277&contentsKey=137) which includes Randy Walker, Chang Yeonsoon and Lizzie Farey.  On Saturday the 24th, Energhia — 2011 Miniartextiel Como opens in Italy.

Lightwear 2006 by Anda Klancic

Installed through November 20th, the exhibition features dozens of international artists, including Anda Klancic and Gyöngy Laky (former Church of San Francesco and other locations, Como, Italy; 011-39-31-30-56-21; http://www.miniartextil.it.

PRESENCE/ABSENCE: IN THE FOLDS by Lia Cook photo by Tom Grotta

The ambitious International Kaunas Biennial,  Textile 11: Rewind-Play-Forward  takes place from September 22nd to December 4, 2011, in Kaunas, Lithuania The Biennial offers a rich programof diverse events – collective and individual exhibits, performances, workshops and a series of conferences organised by the European Textile Network (ETN) – aimed at examining the conceptual evolution of visual and textile arts. On the 23rd, in “Rewind into the Future” several speakers, including Lia Cook, Cynthia Schirra, Reiko Sudo  and Chunghie Lee, will discuss how to empower textile culture for the future, why it is important and what is to be done for the upcoming generation. Lia Cook will also show work from her latest research project in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine including jacquard weavings and a video, in a satellite exhibition About Face. http://www.bienale.lt/2011/?p=375&lang=en  Elsewhere, the Fondation Toms Pauli, which played an important role in the International Tapestry Biennials of Lausanne (1962-1995), will exhibit the works of some of the artists represented in its collection of twentieth-century textile art, such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Jagoda Buić, Kati Gulyas, Ritzi and Peter Jacobi, Jean Lurçat, Maria Laszkiewicz, Wojciech Sadley and Mariyo Yagi http://www.bienale.lt/2011/?p=391&lang=en.  For more information, visit the Biennial’s website http://www.bienale.lt/2011/?page_id=2&lang=en  or ETN’s http://etn-net.org.

On Sunday the 25th, Golden State of Craft: California 1960 -1985 opens at the Craft and Folk Art Museum, 5814 Wilshire Boulevard (at Curson), Los Angeles; 323.937.4230; www.cafam.org. The exhibition, which runs through January 8, 2012, surveys an extraordinary, innovative artistic period that blossomed in post-World War II California.

The-puzzle-of-Floating-World-#2 by Katherine Westphal

Working in a range of materials and forms—from furniture, ceramics, and metals to textiles, jewelry, and glass—artists such as Sam Maloof, Katherine Westphal, Ed Rossbach, Lia Cook, Arline Fisch and Marvin Lipofsky defined the ethos of the era and the West Coast way of life through their creations. The message that these artists presented resounded across the country, shaping how people perceived their homes and instilled art into their daily lives; it made people see the fabric of their environments in a remarkably new light. The exhibition is part of Pacific Standard Time, http://www.pacificstandardtime.org, a series of exhibitions, involving 60 cultural institutions, mounted in conjunction with the Getty, which celebrates the birth of the L.A. art scene.

 

Exhibition News: Flora and Fauna, Museum of Arts and Design, New York

August 27, 2011 0 Comment

Rhonda’s friends from high school in Arizona visited New York from LA and Philadelphia in early August. We talked up the Museum of Arts and Design and the High Line as must-see sites and met them at the Museum and had a terrific time. We were all Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities (through September 18, 2011), which features artists constructing small-scale hand-built depictions of artificial environments and alternative realities, either as sculpture or as subjects for photography and video. These are worlds of “magic realism” conceived and realized through intense engagement with materials, attention to detail, and concern for meaningful content.

Dorothy Gill Barnes UNTITLED 1995

Gyöngy Laky Red Birds

Mary Merkel-Hess Tall Grass

Tom & Connie McColley Along the Path

There were also some remarkable pieces in A Bit of Clay on the Skin: New Ceramic Jewelry (through September 4, 2011). Flora and Fauna, MAD about Nature (through November 6, 2011), however, was less successful. There were individual works that we liked, including Steffen Dam’s Marine Forms, Wayne Higby’s Mesa Gap and Beth Katelman’s Folly and the works pictured here (two of which were sold to collectors by browngrotta arts, and the Gyöngy Laky work that lead us to contact her about representation back in the 90s). But by mixing works featuring motifs from Nature, like fish and flowers and butterflies, with works made of branches and bark and other natural materials, the curator has created a bit of a mashup — two exhibitions with very different sensibilities installed as one.  Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019, 212-299-7777, http://www.madmuseum.org/see.

Dispatches: All Things Considered IV and More at the Fuller Craft Museum

August 4, 2011 0 Comment

We traveled to Brockton, Massachusetts this weekend to see juried works by members of the National Basketry Organization at the Fuller Craft Museum http://www.fullercraft.org/exhibitions.html#Basketry.

Sunrise Artifact by Mary Giles

Woven Vessel by Jonathan Kline

Marked by a Sapsucker by Dorothy Gill Barnes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Among the highlights in our view: Sunrise Artifact by Mary Giles;  Woven Vessel by Jonathan Kline; Marked by a Sapsucker by Dorothy Gill Barnes; Tipped by Nancy Koenigsberg a Basket Book #5 by Arlene McGonagle (of course, we’re suckers for anything related to books). Most impressive, however, were works that appeared to be diptychs.  First, was a pair of  large works, Cave and Snag by Linda Bills, made a year apart, but seamlessly echoing each other in shape and offering an intriguing contrast in volume.

Tipped by Nancy Koenigsberg

Basket Book #5 by Arlene McGonagle

Cave and Snag by Linda Bills

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second was a single piece, Wait, Weight by Jo Stealey, that seems to be two, interlocking basket/bowls of letters (yes, she had us at “A”). The show, which runs through December 11th, is worth seeing — with 85 pieces there is considerable variety in materials, technique and aesthetic. The exhibition would have benefited from more white space, however. The works are placed so close to one another it requires a second walkthrough to really focus on individual pieces.

Union by Christine Joy

Memories by Judy Mulford

Sidestep by Dona Anderson

Untitled 1985 by Kay Sekimachi

Kibiso III by Kiyomi Iwata

Wait Weight by Jo Sealey

CHAT by Jiro Yonezawa

Cradle to Cradle by Gyongy Laky

Calycanthus by Marion Hildebrandt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you can get there before Loom and Lathe: The Art of Kay Sekimachi and Bob Stocksdale closes on September 11, 2011, do. There are interesting works by Kay Sekimachi in this show that did not appear in previous exhibitions of these artists’ work. Although this exhibition also features a large number of pieces in a limited space, as a result of Stocksdale’s and Sekimachi’s minimalist aesthetic and muted color palette, the installation is more successful.

 

We missed Fold It: Deena Schnitman, an installation of cookbooks which is on view in the café because we didn’t know it was there.  We didn’t miss the Flint Farm Stand, though, just down the road in Mansfield.  Great fresh corn and ice cream that has people standing in line.

Dusk by Norma Minkowitz

All Things Considered IV includes 12 artists whose work is represented by browngrotta arts.  Click any image to see more examples of these artists’ work.

Fuller Craft Museum
455 Oak Street
Brockton, MA 02301
508-588-6000
http://www.fullercraft.org/home.html.

Who Said What: Josef Albers

July 24, 2011 0 Comment

Josef Jose“If one says Red—the name of color—and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different.”

—Josef Albers

Summer Site-ings: Exhibitions from Coast to Coast

July 12, 2011 0 Comment

CRADLE TO CRADLE by Gyongy Laky ©2007 Tom Grotta

If you vacation in the East, Midwest or West this summer, you can see work by artists represented by browngrotta arts. In Washington, D.C, at the Textile Museum, is Gyöngy Laky’s work is included in Green: the color and the cause through September 11, 2011.

FB 1008, Kay Sekimachi ©2008 Tom Grotta

At the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, you can see Loom and Lathe: The Art of Kay Sekimachi and Bob Stocksdale, through August 11th and All Things Considered IV, the National Basketry Organization’s biennial exhibition from July 30 to December 4th, which includes work by Kiyomi Iwata, Norma Minkowitz and Gyöngy Laky.

KIBUSO III, Kiyomi Iwata ©2010 Tom Grotta

BINARY TRACES: DREAM GIRL, Lia Cook, ©2005, Tom Grotta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Pittsburgh, Lia Cook is one of three female artists exploring race gender and culture in contemporary art production in Bridge 11, at the Society for Contemporary Craft through October 22nd.

Early Light, Mary Giles ©2006 Tom Grotta

Well represented in the Midwest, work by Mary Giles is included in Field of Vision: Artists Explore Place, at the Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin, through October 2nd and in Basins, Baskets and Bowls: Women Explore the Vessel at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts through October 23rd.

Legs, Norma Minkowitz, 6″x7″, 1974, Neusteter Textile Collection, photo by Bobby Hansson

In Colorado, at the Denver Art Museum, Norma Minkowitz and Lia Cook are among 14 artists included in Sleight of Hand, through December 31st.

TIMELINE, Lawrence LaBianca, photo by Lawrence LaBianca

Two stops in California: At the Bolinas Museum you’ll find Lawrence LaBianca & Wolfgang Bloch: Tracking Nature, through July 31st and at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco, you’ll find

MATRIX 112570 Chang Yeonsoon, ©2007, Tom Grotta

Chang Yeonsoon’s work included in Wrapping Tradition: Korean Textiles Now, through October 22nd.

Summer Stock: Artist Lectures, Classes, Workshops and Walkthroughs

April 29, 2011 0 Comment

Here’s a list of opportunities to connect this summer with the artists that browngrotta arts promotes and information on an interesting Archaeological Textile Course at Bryn Mawr:

 

Reflective Haze by Lewis Knauss, photo by Tom and Carter Grotta

Lewis Knauss
August 22nd to August 26th
Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO
http://www.AndersonRanch.org
“Advanced Fiber Workshop”

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda by Sheila Hicks, photo by Tom Grotta

Sheila Hicks
May 5th, 10:30 a.m.
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
http://www.icaphila.orgWalkthrough: Sheila Hicks: 50 Years

Glacial Planes by Nancy Moore Bess, photo by Tom and Carter Grotta

Nancy Moore Bess
April 29th to May 10th
Snow Farm, Williamsburg MA
http://www.snowfarm.org
“Japanese Inspired Baskets”

June 5th to 11th
Snow Farm, Williamsburg MA
http://www.snowfarm.org
“Japanese Inspired Baskets”

June 24th to 28th
Peters Valley Craft Center, Layton NJ
http://www.petersvalley.org
“Japanese Packaging: Paper, Baskets & More”

July 9th and 10th
Garage Annex School (GAS), Easthampton MA
http://www.garageannexschool.com
“Japanese Packaging: Seeking a Narrative”

July 17th, 12 to 3 pm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
http://www.mfa.org/programs
Artist Demonstration, “Bamboo and Tea”
Exhibition: “An Unspoken Dialogue with Japanese Tea”

August 12th
Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge MA
http://www.berkshirebotanical.org
“Wrapping Your Garden: Herbs, Flowers & Veggies”

Mandella by Pat Campbell, photo by Tom grotta

Pat Campbell
July 25th to July 29th
Waynflete School, Portland, ME
http://www.waynflete.org/podium/default.aspx?t=124856“Weaving Works” for Grades 3-8

Kayak by Chris Drury, photo by Chris Drury

Chris Drury
May 3rd
Tagore Festival, Dartington, Devon, UK
http://www.tagorefestival.com
“Artist’s Talk”

Big Question, By Gyöngy Laky, photo by Tom Grotta

Gyöngy Laky
May 26th, 6 p.m.
The Textile Museum. Washington D.C.
http://www.textilemuseum.org/green
Lecture: “Geometric Disturbances”

July 17th to July 29th
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine
http://www.haystack-mtn.org/workshops.php
Visiting Artist

Tall blue tapestry

AZUL Y NEGR by Carolina Yrarrázaval Photo by Tom Grotta

Carolina Yrarrázaval
August 15th to August 21st
Santiago/Valparaiso/Ilsa Negra, Chile
http://www.yrarrazaval.com
“Pre-Columbian Textile Techniques Workshop”
click for details

 

For extra credit, at Bryn Mawr
June 5th to June 11th
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA
cipstextiles@gmail.com
“Textile Archea: CIPS Archaeological Textile Course”
(Centers on the tools and techniques employed in the analysis of
archaeological textile materials of ancient Peru and introduces students to the archaeology of the Andes.)

Eco-Art News: Green: the Color and the Cause at the Textile Museum in D.C.

April 20, 2011 0 Comment

Gyongy Laky 101L ALTERATIONS apple, grapevine, nails, wire, 58″ x 68″ x 3″ 2008

This Earth Day, visit the Textile Museum’s new exhibition, Green: the Color and the Cause, in person or the gas-free way: online http://www.textilemuseum.org/green. The exhibition includes 34 artists, including Gyöngy Laky and Jiro Yonezawa. These artists work in natural, eco-friendly and repurposed materials and/or create works that reference diminishing resources, species extinction and the like. Online, there is an image for each artist, along with a description and in some cases, links to videos in which the artists describe their work, show their process or their inspiration. You can browse by artist name or by theme: The Color, Nature, Global Choices, Interconnectedness, Repurposing, Sustainability or Adaptation. There’s also a slide show about the history of the Green Movement in this country. The exhibition runs through September 11, 2011. The Textile Museum is located at: 2320 S Street, NW, Washington, DC 20008. For more info call: 202-667-0441. Also, online at http://browngrotta.com/Pages/earthday.php, Eco-Art for Earth Day, through May 1st.