Category: Basketry

November 26th: Our Online Exhibition Opens With an Offer for CyberMonday

On Monday, November 26th, browngrotta arts will present an online version of our 25th anniversary exhibition,Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture at browngrotta.com. The comprehensive exhibition highlights browngrotta arts’ 25 years promoting international contemporary art. Viewers can click on any image in the online exhibition to reach a page with more information about the artists and their work.

“Some works in Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture reflect the early days of contemporary textile art and sculpture movement,” says Tom Grotta, founder and co-curator at browngrotta arts. “There are also current works by both established and emerging artists, which provide an indication of where the movement is now and where it may be headed.”

Since Monday the 26th is CyberMonday this year, sales of art, books, catalogs, videos or dvds placed online or by telephone that day will be discounted 10% (excluding tax and shipping). In addition, bga will make a donation to the International Child Art Foundation for each sale made from November 24th through December 31, 2012. Visit browngrotta.com. For more information call Tom at 203.834.0623 or email us at art@browngrotta.com.


Hot off the Press: Our Largest Catalog Yet

The catalog for Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture is an ambitious venture for us. Currently weighing in at 182 pages, it features a timeline of art textile events from the 40s to the present, including the Lausanne Biennials (1962 to 1995), Fiber/Revolution in Milwaukee in 1986, Beyond Weaving in Greenwich, Connecticut in 2006, and key dates for fiber pioneers like Dorothy Liebes, Lenore TawneyMagdalena Abakanowicz and Ed Rossbach. The catalog also includes two essays, one by designer Jo Ann Stabb, formerly on the design faculty at the University of California, Davis, on the emergence of contemporary textiles and fiber arts, the other by Lesley Millar, Professor of Textile Culture at the UK’s University of the Creative Arts, on recent developments in the field and what’s ahead. The catalog will be available in our online bookstore at  http://browngrotta.com/Pages/c37.php for $55.00, plus shipping and  sales tax where applicable.

 


Looking Forward/Looking Back: Sylvia Seventy

BOUND VESSEL IX by Sylvia Seventy, 1983, photo by Tom Grotta

“I always think of my art like a dance – it leads and I follow. 1966, my second semester in college, just out of high school, I took an Introduction to Art class. The instructor introduced a medley of visual art projects, and two were textile related. I spent late nights in the living rocm weaving on the large frame loom I built in class. I actually coaxed my mother to help me embroider on the other textile project I designed. She dyed it, and I only felt a little bit guilty. She and I would chat into the evening instead of being glued to the TV. In 1973, when I moved north from southern California to Healdsburg, I discovered the Pomo culture. In my first basketry class at the local “Indian School,” Mabel McKay, instructor and tribal leader, asked me if I had an awl. She showed me hers, passed down for generations. I returned to the next class with an altered antique screwdriver I turned on a grinder and then finely sanded into a very authentic awl. She was impressed, and I saw my artistic path continuing ahead of me. I still use my awl as I assemble my vessels.

When the gallery and museum world opened up to me as I finished undergraduate work ,and continued to be there for me through graduate school and beyond, the memories that attached to my soul were the complimentary notes often written on the packing of a returning art piece. I also remember New York gallery owner, Warren Hadler, bent way over at an exhibit with his head all the way inside a very large paper vessel I’d made in graduate school.

Detail of Thrums 2007 by Sylvia Seventy, photo by Tom Grotta

Mildred Constantine, former curator at MOMA, stopped a slide show at’ the Allrich Gallery in San Francisco to ask, ‘Who made the paper baskets?’ Restaurateur John Ash, on returning from New York years ago finally reached me after numerous telephone messages asking me to call. After our telephone-tag he told me he saw my ‘beautiful work in New York’ and couldn’t believe I actually lived in Healdsburg.

Once, I shipped 11 paper vessels in two huge boxes via the Healdsburg Greyhound bus depot/office for an art exhibition in Manhattan at the Elements Gallery. Despite giving a three-week lead time, the boxes arrived DURING THE OPENING RECEPTION and for weeks I received notes from those who attended inquiring how had I managed to orchestrate such a ‘grand entrance?’

And, I remember for many years, galleries not wanting to mention that my vessels were made of ‘recycled paper,’ even though it was always part of my contemporary hunter-gatherer concept.”

Sylvia Seventy

September 2012


Looking Forward/Looking Back: Lloyd Cotsen

Baskets by Deborah Valoma, Hisako Sekijima, Gyöngy Laky
photos by Tom Grotta, courtesy of browngrotta arts

In 2008 internationally known collector Lloyd Cotsen donated 151 contemporary basketworks to the Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin. When added to the nearly 300 contemporary basket works already in the museum’s collection, the result was one of the largest concentrations of fiber sculpture in any US art institution. The excerpt below is from an essay/interview included in the study guide, Basketworks: Cotsen Contemporary American Basket Collection, available from RAM. http://www.ramart.org/. The interviewer is Bruce Pepich, Executive Director and Curator of Collections, RAM:

Pepich: The majority of the artists in this collection are American women. So this was intentional?

Baskets by Mary Giles, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Christine Joy
photos by Tom Grotta, courtesy of browngrotta arts

Cotsen: Yes. The acquisition of women artists’ work was an intentional statement on my part. In Japan, most of the basket makers are men, but when I looked at what was going on in the United States, I noticed that the majority of the artists advancing the field at this time were women. I found a great deal of experimentation that was moving contemporary basketry — and the fibers field in general — in many new directions. There are a few men and also some British and Japanese women artists who are included in this group because they actively participated in the American basketry movement as teachers and exhibiting artists. However, the great majority are American women.

Baskets by Mary Merkel-Hess, Maggie Henton and Nancy Moore Bess
photos by Tom Grotta, courtesy of browngrotta arts

I am most frequently drawn to what the women basket artists see in the materials they employ and the forms they create. These artists seem to have an innate closeness to the earth; it interests me to see how they express that through their work in fibers. Historically, women carried baskets as storage containers or created other textile forms; contemporary basket artists share a connection with their predecessors in the understanding they have for basket materials and forms. I think contemporary works are more interesting than classic American folk baskets. I did not want to have the pieces in this collection mistaken as purely functional, but viewed as innovative sculptural statements. Functionality is not important to me; it can be a limitation. I am interested in aesthetic and shape.

When I first started collecting, there were few people systematically assembling contemporary basket collections. I wanted to encourage the development of these artists’ aesthetic concepts by acquiring their works.

Marion Hildebrandt; Naomi Kobayashi; Chungi Choo
photos by Tom Grotta, courtesy of browngrotta arts

Basketmakers in the The Cotsen Contemporary American Basket Collection: Dona Anderson;* Joan Austin; Michael Bailot; Dorothy Gill Barnes;* Patricia Barrett; Dail Behennah;* Nancy Moore Bess;* Linda Bills; Delores L. Boyer; Joann Segal Brandford; Nancy Braski; Brent Brown; Jan Buckman; Chunghi Choo; Jill Nordfors Clark; Akemi Daniells; Dane Dent; Rob Dobson; Jean and Rob Doubert; Jeanne Drevas; Lillian Elliott/Pat Hickman; Norma Anderson Fox; Therese Neptune Gardiner; John Garrett; Lindsay Ketterer Gates; Mary Giles;* Maggie Henton; Marion Hildebrandt; Patti Q. Hill; Kazue Honma;*Flo Hoppe; Christine Joy*; Tamiko Kawata*; Jane Kerseg-Hinson; Susan W. Kilmer; Naomi Kobayashi;* Gyöngy Laky;* Shereen LaPlantz; Kari Lonning; Elaine Lucero; Mika McCann; Connie/Tom McColley; John McQueen;* Merkel-Hess;* Doris Messick; Sally Metcalf; Norma Minkowitz;* Diane Moore; Debora Muhl; Judy Mulford;* Dulese Myers; Dennis Nahabetian; Leon Niehaus; Jane Niejadlik; Linda Kelly Osborne; Francina Kraynek Prince; Emily Borden Ragsdale; Lois S. Rainwater; Fran Reed; Jill Romanoke; Ed Rossbach*; JoAnne Russo; Betz Salmont; Hisako Sekijima;* Corey Shenkin; Karyl Sisson;* Thurmond Strickland; Billie Ruth Sudduth; Polly Adams Sutton; Ema Tanigaki; Deborah Valoma*; Don Weeke; Jiro Yonezawa.* An asterisk indentifies artists whose work will be included in Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of  Art Textiles and Sculpture at browngrotta arts this fall.


Looking Forward/Looking Back: Dona Anderson

20da Re-Tire, Dona Anderson, tire chain, netting and window screen, 8.5″ € x 16.25″ €x 14.5″ , 2011

“Wow, 25 years in the art business is pretty remarkable. Not only that—it’s successful. One of the challenges I enjoyed (among many) was your request for work for Stimulus: art and its inception. Finding my “Stimulus” was fun for me. Walking through my neighborhood everyday, I took care to find that special something that appealed to my imagination. When I saw a rusty piece of metal wire tweaking out from a pile of dirt, my heart soared with possibilities. No one even knew what it had been until I cleaned it—a tire chain I turned into a basket. This is only one of the many opportunities you have provided for your artists over the years. I am grateful for all of them — including your encouragement, enthusiasm and innovative marketing experience!”
Dona Anderson
September 2012


Save the Date: Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture this October

Helena Hernmarck, Jo Barker and Kiyomi Iwata are three of the artists participating Retro/Prospective 25+ Years of Art Textiles, photo by Tom Grotta

This fall we will present a catalog exhibition, Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture in Wilton, Connecticut from October 26th to November 4th to commemorate browngrotta arts’ 25 years promoting international contemporary art. The comprehensive exhibition will look at the past and future of the art textile movement, and as always, include related works in ceramics and wood and mixed media. There will be works in the exhibition by pioneers of the contemporary textile art and sculpture movement and there will be current work by established and emerging artists, to explain where the movement is now and provide a sense of what’s ahead.

Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles, work by John McQueen, Sue Lawty
photo by Tom Grotta

The artworks selected by browngrotta arts for Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture express a powerful sensibility. John McQueen was persuaded to take the dramatic sculpture, Centered, begun in 2007, from his personal collection and place it on display. Naoko Serino’s ethereal Generating 12 is from her most current body of work. Sue Lawty’s Calculus is a contemplation made of thousands of tiny stones, from a series she began as artist in residence at the V&A, While Chris Drury’s Roussillon I, takes viewers on a visual adventure by combining rubbed ochre on paper and a woven map.

The artists in Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture come from a wide range of countries and art  backgrounds. They utilize diverse materials and techniques. Some, like Lia Cook and Gyöngy Laky from the US, are mid-career artists who have achieved international recognition. Others, like Laura Thomas of the UK, Jennifer Falck Linssen of the US and recent graduate Stéphanie Jacques of Belgium, are emerging talents. The work of others, like Chang Yeonsoon, 2008 Artist of the Year at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea and Grethe Sorensen of Denmark, has been celebrated abroad, but only rarely shown in the United States. The exhibition will also include artists whose work complements our art textile emphasis, including sculptor Lawrence LaBianca and ceramicist Yasuhisa Kohyama.

GENERATING 12 by Naoko Serino, photo by Tom Grotta


The Artists Reception and Opening for Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture will be held Saturday, October 27, 2012 from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. at browngrotta arts, 276 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, Connecticut. From October 28th through November 4th, the exhibition will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 203-834-0623; email: art@browngrotta.com or visit browngrotta.com. A catalog will accompany the exhibit and be available after the opening.


Upcoming: Events at SOFA New York this Week

Lectures, artist booth visits and more.  This week’s events include:

Sue Lawty, John McQueen and Norma Mnkowitz

April 19th

Opening – SOFA NY

VIP Cardholders Preview       5:00 – 9:00 pm       Invitation Only
Public Preview Gala*               7:00 – 9:00 pm       $100.00
* Available online in advance and at the door beginning at 5:30 pm
Park Avenue Armory
browngrotta arts: 25 at 25 at SOFA NY
browngrotta arts booth 208

April 20th

1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Artist booth visit
John McQueen
browngrotta arts booth 208

Detail of BODY LANGUAGE, by John McQueen

Meet with fiber artist and basketmaker John McQueen.
McQueen is one of 25 artists highlighted this year by
browngrotta arts.
2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Lecture
Sue Lawty – rock-linen-lead
browngrotta arts booth 208

Sue Lawty working on a stone drawing

Lawty charts the journey of her understated and abstract works which are strongly influenced by a comprehensive engagement with remote landscape, geology and the passage of time. Seeking “an essential stillness,” Lawty’s constructed pieces and drawings in two and three dimensions explore repetition and interval in raffia, hemp, linen, lead, stone or shadow. 
4 p.m. to 5 p.m. 
Booksigning
Sue Lawty
browngrotta arts booth 208
Fiber and mixed media artist Sue Lawty will sign copies of her book, SUE LAWTY: rock-raphia-linen-lead.

April 21st
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Artist booth visit Norma Minkowitz

browngrotta arts booth 208

Detail of Remembrance by Norma Minkowitz

Meet with fiber and mixed media artist Norma Minkowitz.
Minkowitz is one of 25 artists highlighted this year by
browngrotta arts.

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Masako Yoshida

Kuu #441 Masako Yoshida (detail), photo by Tom Grotta

Sculptures of bark by Masako Yoshida are among the works that browngrotta arts will feature at SOFA NY. The constructions Yoshida envisions are built by interlacing sheets of walnut bark with string made of nettle. “I consider myself a member of society who wants to make works that open into the new world earnestly, one step at a time,”  Yoshida finds that her work provides her “a means of release, allowing the truth to emerge and open the mind. In the process, I ask myself, ‘what is my connection to society?'” Yoshida has studied basketmaking with noted teacher and artist, Hisako Sekijima.

11my Kuu#441, Masako Yoshida;, walnut and maple, 20.5″€ x 12″€ x 4.25″€, 2007-2010, photo by Tom Grotta

She graduated from Musashino Art University, majoring in textiles and has since worked there as instructor. She has also taught at Tamagawa Institute. Her work has been exhibited at the Nagoya Trade and Industry Center (In Our Hands) Japan; Iwasaki Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan; Megro City Museum, Japan; Takashimaya Department Store (Amu Kumu solo exhibition); Tachikawa, Japan; Nuno Annex Exhibition (solo, traveling exhibition); Wayne Art Center, Pennsylvania (Green for the Get Go).

 

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Klaus Titze

Klaus Titze, TURNING TORSO, photo by tom Grotta

Klaus Titze is one of the artists whose work will be displayed by browngrotta arts at SOFA NY.  The German artist now makes his  home in Denmark.  “Living on the Danish island of Møn,” he says,  “I am fascinated by the white chalk cliffs falling dramatically towards the Baltic Sea.  Chalk slides expose fossils formed in many kinds of shapes.” Inspired, Titze designs and creates works in a special twisting technique he has developed in which willow is twisted to create thick “ropes.” He then covers the willow with concrete, evoking the illusion of fossils in chalk. The ultimate step in the process is burning the willow to imprint this unique structure into the concrete, which acts as a shell. By firing the willow until it almost disappears, Titze creates structures that highlight sculptural and architectural elements. Concludes Art Aurea online magazine, “The unusual baskets thus created have been deprived of their age-old function, presenting themselves instead as breathtaking, independent works of art….The feminine shape,..in contrast to the coarse structure.”

2kt Klaus Titze TURNING TORSO willow, burnt fiber cement 29″ x 13.5″ x 13.5″, 2011, photo by Tom Grotta

Titze’s work has appeared at Grønbechs Gard, Bornholm, Denmark (solo exhibition); Roskilde City Hall, Denmark; Grassi Museum Leipzig, Germany; the National Crafts Council, Kilkenny, Ireland; Trapholt Museum, Kolding, Denmark; Landart Lolland-Falster, Denmark; Munich, Germany; Wayne Art Center, Pennsylvania. He received the Best One-of-a-Kind Object, award at the Arts and Crafts Fair, Copenhagen, Denmark and the Bavarian State Prize, Meister der Moderne, Munich, Germany.

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Naoko Serino

4ns Generating-4 detail, Naoko Serino, photo by Tom Grotta

At SOFA NY browngrotta arts will present two dramatic works of jute by Japanese artist Naoko Serino. “Jute is attractive as it is, transient but also solid,” explains Serino. “Transforming jute into a fibrous material, I feel that the possibilities of expression have opened up and been induced, and eventually a three-dimensional expression is born, containing both light and air.” In creating  Generating-3, which will be displayed at SOFA New York, Serino was inspired by a Philodendron selloum bud and flower that she tended for 22 years before it bloomed, for just one day. Serino was taken by its strength and beauty.

4ns Generating-4, Naoko Serino, jute, 39″ x 39″ x 6.5″, 2012, photo by Tom Grotta

Generating-4, a standalone sculpture of jute that is more than three feet high will also be displayed at SOFA NY. “When my inner memory is stimulated,” Serino says, “I turn the fundamental illusion into a ‘shape’ and  I am able to enjoy interacting with shapes far beyond my imagination.” Serino’s’s work was included in the Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers exhibition which traveled from Japan to the Japan Society in New York last year. her work has also appeared in the Museum Rijswijk,  Haag, the Netherlands; Kajima Ki Building, Tokyo, Japan; Church of San Francesco, Como, Italy; Musée des Beaux Arts, Tournai, Belgium;  Gwangju Art Museum,Korea;  Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China;  Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; Urasoe Museum, Okinawa, Japan;  and St. Amandsberg Chapel, Ghent, Belgium.