Category: Exhibitions

Sneak Peek: Ritzi Jacobi at SOFA New York 2010

March 31, 2010 0 Comment

browngrotta arts will present two recent works by art textile pioneer Ritzi Jacobi in its exhibit at SOFA New York 2010. Since the late 1960s, Jacobi’s work, created first with Peter Jacobi, and since the 80s alone, has produced large tapestry reliefs that underscore the sculptural possibilities of fiber. In these works, Jacobi “draws” in three dimensions, creating light and shadow with fiber cables and bundles of wrapped fibers. Jacobi places viewers in the midst of a “shingled, edgeless terrain,” writes Robert Bell, Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the National Gallery of Australia, “allowing us to navigate its complexity with our senses of touch, smell and sight. Without the distraction of a visible or literal narrative, we are encouraged to examine the minutiae of the structure, and become an active partner in Jacobi’s textile architecture as we subconsciously reconnect its discordances.”

Jacobi’s individual and collaborative works are found in museums around the world, including the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York; Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome, Italy; and Bellerive Museum, Zurich, Switzerland.

We are excited about exhibiting two quite different, yet representative, works by Ritzi Jacobi at SOFA New York. The tension and tactically in her work is always exciting for viewers. In Blue Zone myriad shades and tones of a single color create additional intensity. In Floating Matter there is a complexity of surface and structure — by summarizing cable elements in various techniques, the single particles generate a vivid, pulsating pattern. In either case, technique has become secondary to the overall composition.

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Contemporary Tapestry, SOFA NY, Tapestry, Ritzi Jacobi, Coconut Fiber

Sneak Peek: Wendy Wahl’s branches at SOFA New York 2010

March 25, 2010 0 Comment
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Next month, Rhode Island-based artist Wendy Wahl will exhibit branches, an imposing interactive sculpture constructed from discarded and deconstructed Encyclopedia Britannicas inside the Park Avenue Armory in New York for the Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art (SOFA) exposition. From April 15th through the 19th, branches will flank SOFA’s entrance inside the Armory and stand approximately nine-feet high, six-feet deep, and eleven-feet wide. Viewers will be encouraged to move through the sculpture, whose form and materials will serve as a contemporary reflection on the ancient idea of the Tree of Knowledge, “We are thrilled to have Wahl frame this year’s edition of SOFA New York with her provocative work that will doubtlessly energize veterans and newcomers alike,” added Mark Lyman, President, The Art Fair Company and Founder/Director of SOFA.

“I love the materiality of books,” explains Wahl, “and branches is a tribute of sorts to a medium in transition. It’s a wonderful opportunity to continue my exploration at SOFA in New York City—the center of the rapidly changing publishing industry. I want the fair’s audience to think about how they get their knowledge and to question their relationships to the natural world. What are the connections between nature and language? How does the existence of a multitude of new ways to communicate alter our understanding of meaning and significance?” The installation will continue a series that Wahl began in 2005, which addresses a set of ideas including accessibility and accumulation, synthesis and sustainability. Previous installations in the series have appeared at the Newport Art Museum and the Bristol Art Museum in Rhode Island and the Fuller Craft Museum of Art in Brockton, Massachusetts.

“Digital media has led such artists as Wendy Wahl to re-evaluate the potency of the printed word,” Akiko Busch wrote last fall in an essay in the catalog The 10th Wave III, “Wahl finds different ways to reconfigure the pages of the Encyclopedia Britannica; the leaves may be stacked into forms that suggest an alternative forest of knowledge or tightly scrolled and packed within a frame, making for a composition that suggests a cabinet of hidden knowledge, those archives of information that are at once visible and concealed, at hand and remote.”

Wahl’s work is represented by browngrotta arts of Wilton, Connecticut. The gallery will feature other examples of Wahl’s work in its SOFA New York 2010 installation in booth 204. Wendy Wahl ‘s work can be found in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (New York, NY) and the American Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (through the Art in Embassies Program). She has exhibited throughout the world at venues such as the Contemporary Jewish Museum (San Francisco, CA), the Newport Art Museum (Newport, RI), the University of Wollongong (Australia), and the International Textile Convention (Kyoto, Japan).

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SOFA NY, Art Installation, Wendy Wahl, Encyclopedia Britannica

Dispatch: American International Fine Art Fair, Palm Beach, February 3rd-8th

February 3, 2010 0 Comment
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Lenore Tawney collages, In Chaco and The Loftiest Word and sculpture, Boy with Duck, at AIFAF

From February 3rd to the 8th. browngrotta arts will join more than 80 international galleries exhibiting at the American International Fine Art Fair (AIFAF) in Palm Beach, Florida. AIFAF is recognized as the “crown jewel” of American art fairs and is the only American art and antiques fair rated 5 stars by The Art Newspaper. AIFAF is a fully vetted fair, featuring prestigious international dealers presenting a mix of paintings, sculpture, jewelry, antiques, contemporary design and decorative arts. In cooperation with the Baruch Foundation and the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, browngrotta arts will feature the work of Magdalena Abakanowicz and Lenore Tawney at AIFAF, artists whose work redefined weaving and sculpture in the 20th Century.

Abakanowicz is the best-known Polish artist in the world. She initially gained acclaim for her “Abakans,” monumental woven works of sisal, ropes and other fibers that hung free in space. Next were headless human forms of burlap and later bronze. Large groupings of her sculptures are installed around the world, from Chicago’s Millennium Park to Olympic Park in Seoul to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. In presenting her a Visionaries! award in 2000, the Museum of Arts and Design cited her for “her powerful explorations, dealing with the impact of social and political reality on individual identity, that have demonstrated the potential of fiber as an effective and expressive sculptural material.”

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Weavings by Magdalena Abakanowicz at AIFAF. The weavings on the far right and far left were woven in the 1980s; the piece in the center is from the 1960s.

At AIFAF, browngrotta arts will exhibit three weavings by Abakanowicz, one from the 1960s and two, from the Anne and Jacques Baruch Collection, Ltd., created in the 1980s. The Baruchs opened a gallery in Chicago in the late 1960s, bringing work to the U. S. from Central Europe in order to give exposure to the Slavic art that Jacques, who died in 1986, once described as “the finest work of tomorrow…not what is known…the new blood.” Jacques was unable to travel after 1970, but Anne continued to travel to Central Europe to search for art. As the political situation in the area tightened, Anne, began smuggling art into the US, often at great risk. Government agents would seal her packages of approved art before she left; with the help of artists, she would often unseal the packages and reseal them in order to add unsanctioned works. She would travel with a bright red Hartman suitcase with a false bottom, filled with art supplies that the artists could not buy. On her return trip, artworks would be hidden inside. In this manner, Anne amassed a singular collection of contemporary textiles and historical and contemporary Czech photography. The Baruch Foundation was established in 2008, subsequent to Anne’s death in 2006 and is comprised of her personal art collection and the artwork inventory of The Anne and Jacques Baruch Collection, Ltd. The missions of the Foundation are to preserve and foster the growth of the visual arts of Eastern and Central Europe through donations of artwork to museums and schools, and to fund educational programs and scholarships by the sale of artwork.

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Works by Lenore Tawney on display in the browngrotta arts booth at AIFAF.

At AIFAF, browngrotta arts will also show weavings, drawings, collages and mixed media assemblages by Lenore Tawney, who died in 2007 at the age of 100. “Luminous is an apt word to describe the entire career of the American artist Lenore Tawney,” wrote Holland Cotter in the New York Times in 2004. In the 1950’s, he noted, “she created a series of monumental open-weave sculptures that were like nothing seen before or since. Astonishing.” About her collages Cotter has written, “Whether she sets cut-up bits of handwriting spinning around a reproduction of a Michelangelo sibyl or turns strips of antique German books into suspended grids, she touches on the roots of the collage medium in language and personal history with a reticent orginality.” The Lenore G Tawney Foundation was established in 1989 by Tawney for charitable and educational purposes. Its aim is to support other artists in their own artistic efforts and to support special projects at art museums and non-profit educational arts organizations; its highest priority is to nurture emerging artists and to provide them with learning opportunities through established educational programs.

Dispatch: Artpalmbeach, art+photography+design

January 23, 2010 0 Comment

We’ve exhibited in Palm Beach, Florida in January for the last seven years. In that time, the exhibition has had three different owners, three different names and differing emphases each year. Despite the difficulty the fair has had finding a footing, we’ve returned each year. We are convinced there is a good audience in the Palm Beach area and we are always happy to catch up with our existing Florida clients, and family and friends.

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This year, however, the news is better. The latest incarnation, artpalmbeach, art+photography+design, seems to have found a workable formula. The crowds at the fair were large; the composition of the show varied and exciting, we added new clients to our list and the other dealers we spoke to seemed pleased sales. In this economic environment, those are impressive achievements. David Lester, of International Fine Art Exhibitions, who founded the fair in 1998 with his wife, Lee Ann, and resumed ownership a year ago, told Artinfo, “I want this fair to have broad appeal, quality art, and accessibility. My goal is to go out and bring in much more interesting art from around the globe.” The global emphasis was evident in the mix of galleries and work. The 70 galleries came from the US and abroad, including the Netherlands, Ukraine, UK, Sweden Argentina and Dubai. Chinese, Vietnamese, Icelandic and Latin American artists were featured. In the browngrotta arts booth alone was work created by artists from 15 countries.

“That power of attraction, admirable for any fair in an inhospitable economic climate, bodes well for the process of reinvention that the Lesters have only just begun, ” concluded Margery Gordon in her Artinfo article, “Art Palm Beach Mixes Media — and Messages.” http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/33659/art-palm-beach-mixes-media-and-messages. We were so optimistic, in fact, we are turning around and returning next week to participate in IFAE’s American International Fine Art Fair from February 2nd – 8th at the Palm Beach Convention Center http://www.aifaf.com. More on that to come.

Sneak Peek: Artpalmbeach, January 14th -19th

January 10, 2010 0 Comment

Palm-Beach-Ad.jpgWe’re leaving the ice and snow (sigh) for sunnier climes next week, where browngrotta arts will join more than 50 other galleries exhibiting at the Palm Beach County Convention Center at Artpalmbeach, art + photography + design. The fair opens on January 15th and lasts through the 19th. A theme of this year’s Artpalmbeach,  art + photography + design is “going global.” As always, browngrotta arts will do its part; we are exhibiting the work of artists from 15 countries. Our installation in Booth 204 will include some of the highlights of this fall’s 10th Wave III exhibitions as well as new works by several artists including a significant wall sculpture by Ritzi Jacobi; pieces made of fish scales by Marian Bijlenga and new works of repurposed encyclopedias by Wendy Wahl. We’ll present the work of two artists in Palm Beach for the first time: We’ll present the work of two artists in Palm Beach for the first time: Jennifer Falck Linssen of the US and Carolina Yrarrázaval of Chile. US Artist Norma Minkowitz will be at the booth on Monday, January 18th from 2-4 p.m. to discuss her work; Dawn MacNutt of Nova Scotia will be at the booth to discuss her work on Tuesday, January 19th, from 2-4 p.m.

Sneak Peek 10th Wave III Catalog: Essay by Akiko Busch

October 28, 2009 0 Comment
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Writer Akiko Busch has drafted an essay for the catalog 10th Wave III: Art Textiles and Fiber Sculpture, which is being printed this week. Busch is the author of The Uncommon Life of Common Objects (Metropolis Books), Geography of Home: Writings on Where We Live (Princeton Architectural Press) and, most recently, Nine Ways to Cross a River: Midstream Reflections on Swimming and Getting There from Here (Bloomsbury). A former writer for Metropolis Magazine, Busch writes about culture and design for a variety of publications. She is a regular contributor to the Considerings column in American Craft Magazine. About the work in the 10th Wave III, Busch writes,

“And what so many of these pieces suggest, of course, is the ease with which the narrative capabilities of the fiber arts converge with more abstract expression. Meaning need not always be so literal. The woven form has an inherent ambiguity; it can be about containing and letting go at once.”

The 164-page color catalogs can be ordered from http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/catalog.34.html beginning October 30, 2009.

Knitted, Knotted, Netted at the Hunterdon Museum of Art in Clinton, NJ

October 25, 2009 0 Comment
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We attended the opening of Knitted, Knotted, Netted at the Hunterdon Museum of Art in Clinton, New Jersey last week. The Museum is a picturesque venue, presenting changing exhibitions of contemporary art and design in a 19th century stone mill that is on the National Register of Historic Places. The town of Clinton offers speciality shops featuring antiques, quilts, country furnishings and, intriguingly in one case, “Things We Like.”

Norma Minkowitz, Kazue Honma, Noriko Tanikawa, Hisako Sekijima

Norma Minkowitz, Kazue Honma, Noriko Tanikawa, Hisako Sekijima

Knitted, Knotted, Netted includes work by 12 artists. The techniques highlighted in Knitted, Knotted, Netted have ancient lineages and have seen a resurgence through their use by contemporary artists. Each of these methods involves the looping of a thread or cord, differentiating them from braiding and weaving, in which elements may interlace but not necessarily loop through each other. The artists in this exhibit employ the techniques of the title in diverse ways and in widely differing materials, varied in size, shape and color. The two- and three-dimensional artworks in the exhibit use not only plant and animal materials but also industrial and synthetic materials, creating looped structures never envisioned in earlier contexts. The highlights for us: the work by the four artists represented by browngrotta arts, of course — three strong works by Norma Minkowitz and a work of edgeworthia bark by Hisako Sekijima, grouped with works by two of her students, Kazue Honma and Noriko Takamiya — and also, The Crowded Planet series by Carol Westfall. Westfall says that the series is composed of hundreds of tiny “men,” the stick figures we drew as children. “If you take the top two arms and pull them together you create the kanji character for man, nin or jin or hito,” she explains. “I compress all these tiny ‘men’ together and form the ball which is This Crowded Planet.”

Carol Westfall's The Crowded Planet Series

Carol Westfall’s The Crowded Planet Series

The exhibit, at 7 Lower Center Street, Clinton, NJ, 908-735-8415, continues through January 24, 2010.

 

10th Wave III: Online– The next best thing to being there

October 23, 2009 0 Comment
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Our first online exhibit, the10th Wave III: Online, opens today. The exhibit is a carefully curated selection of works presented in installation shots, images of individual works and detail photos. Approximating the in-person experience, viewers can “walk” through 26 images of the exhibit installed; click to view each of the 125 works in the show more closely, focus in on images of dozen of details and click to read more about each of the artists in the exhibition. “Images of individual works of art online are commonplace,” says Tom Grotta, president of browngrotta arts. “We have tried, instead, to give viewers a sense of the work in space, combined with the option of looking more closely at the pieces that interest them, just as they would have if they were visiting the exhibit in person.”

The artists in the 10th Wave III are experimenting with forms and techniques in novel and surprising ways, exploring new relationships among structure, design, color, and pattern.” They work in a wide range of materials from silk, stainless steel and rubber to recycled raincoats and linen to tree bark, safety pins and telephone books. Among the artists in the online exhibition are Lewis Knauss, Lia Cook, Gyöngy Laky from the US, Sue Lawty from the UK, Ritzi Jacobi from Germany, Jin-Sook So from Sweden, Carolina Yrarrázaval from Chile and Hisako Sekijima and Jiro Yonezawa from Japan.

The 10th Wave III: Online runs through December 20, 2009.

Catch the Wave: The 10th Wave III opens today

October 9, 2009 0 Comment

MATERNAL GRANDMOTHERS.jpg The opening of the 10th Wave III at Artifact Design Group, 2 Hollyhock Lane, Wilton Connecticut is from 3:30 to 7:30 this Friday the 9th of October. The exhibition features work from more than 40 artists from Europe, Asia, Canada, the US and the UK. Also featured in the exhibition are new furniture designs by Gregory Clark. The show will run through November 28, 2009. Hope you’ll get a chance to stop by!

For more information check the Events and Calendar Pages on our website: www.browngrotta.com.

Guest Post: Nancy Moore Bess

September 27, 2009 0 Comment

A SINGULAR VOICE – LESLEY DILL

by Nancy Moore Bess

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Click Guest Posts tab to read about Nancy’s visit to Lesley Dill’s traveling exhibition.

Lesley Dill (b. 1950)
Dress of Inwardness
2006
white painted bronze, unique
Collection of Karen and Robert Duncan, Lincoln, NE