Category: Exhibitions

Face Forward: Exhibition Portraits

June 15, 2023 0 Comment

Tom Grotta’s passion since beginning to represent artists in art textiles and fiber sculpture has been to effectively present the work in photographs. With artwork, he aims to highlight the haptic quality of work made by hand and give viewers a sense of each work’s scale and presence. His portraits of artists often show them at work and give people a glimpse of their practice and passion. As a result, browngrotta arts receives regular requests to share Tom’s photographs for books and articles including Fiber: 1960 to the Present; Golden State of Craft; Tapestry: A Woven Narrative and The New York Times, Interior Design, selvedge; and FT: How to Spend It. He also gets requests to use his portraits in exhibitions — and we use them ourselves for that purpose. It’s always a thrill to see them blown up. In this post will share some of those with you.

Works by Toshiko Takaezu; portrait of Toshiko Takaezu by Tom Grotta at This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. Photo by Ted Rowland.

Last year, ceramist Toshiko Takaezu’s work was highlighted in a gallery space in This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC (at the same time her work was on exhibit at the Venice Biennial). Takaezu’s works were displayed aside a large portrait taken by Tom Grotta.

Portrait of Ethel Stein in front of her portrait at Ethel Stein: Master Weaver at the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Tom Grotta.

In 2014, we were thrilled to go to Chicago to attend the opening of Ethel Stein: Master Weaver, a one-person retrospective for Ethel Stein, then 96. She has been steadfastly “counter-trend,” as textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen observed, creating squares of quiet pattern to be placed on walls at a time when other textile artists were emphasizing the sculptural potential of fiber by working in three dimensions. Produced on a drawloom—a type of handloom that incorporates a figure harness capable of controlling each warp thread separately—her work seems deceptively simple, but as one understands the mysteries and complexities of this weaving method historically favored for creating figured textiles, the sophistication and challenge of her work become undeniable. The drawloom was donated to the Art Institute, as well — The exhibition included 38 of the artists works and a large version of Tom’s portrait. The portrait graced the cover of our catalog, Ethel Stein: Weaver, which was sold in the Art Institute’s bookstore.

Portrait of Ed Rossbach in Ed Rossbach: Quiet Revolutionary at SOFA, Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Tom Grotta.

In 2004, browngrotta arts co-sponsored Ed Rossbach: Quiet Revolutionary, with LongHouse Reserve at the SOFA exhibition in Chicago. A diverse grouping of Rossbach’s works was included.  The exhibition had been organized first at the Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Michigan and then traveled to LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, New York.

Portrait of Judy Mulford at SOFA in front of the portrait in the special exhibition,  Judy Mulford: 80 Chairs. The portrait is of Mulford in her California studio. Photo by Tom Grotta.

At SOFA Chicago in 2017, we presented Judy Mulford’s 80 Empty Chairs. The installation featured a central sculpture entitled “What now?” she said. “What now?…What now?…What now?…” surrounded by 80 individually rendered chairs in frames. The intimate and emotional sculpture chronicles domestic life. The dollhouse chairs, dolls, buttons and embellishments used in the work were collected by the artist from family members, flea markets, antique stores and friends. Mulford spent a year on the work, which marked her then-upcoming 80th birthday. She also produced a limited-edition book, 80 Empty Chairs, as a part of this project.

Portraits of Gyöngy Laky and John McQueen in their respective studios at WordPlay: Messages in Bark & Branch at the Flinn Gallery, Greenwich Library, Connecticut. Photos by Tom Grotta.

Most recently, this May, Tom’s portraits of Gyöngy Laky and John McQueen welcomed visitors to WordPlay: Messages in Bark & Branch at the Flinn Gallery, Greenwich Library, Connecticut. These portraits are among the several dozen Tom has taken in as part of what we call our studio visit project. We have been to California, Ohio, New York, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands photographing artists. We hope to create more of these images to share with you.

Art Out and About: Spring 2023

June 9, 2023 0 Comment

US or abroad we’ve got lots of suggestions — 10 in fact — of exhibitions you can visit in June and beyond.

1) Christine Joy and Sara Mast: Passage 
Yellowstone Art Museum 
Billings, MT 
through July 16, 2023

Christine Joy Connecting to the Sky sculpture
Christine Joy, Connecting to the Sky, 2016. Photo courtesy of Christine Joy

https://www.artmuseum.org/project/christine-joy-and-sara-mast-passage/

Christine Joy and Sara Mast explorethe mystery of nature through the transformation of materials, texture, and form.

The large, twisted willow forms by Christine Joy are the result of a rhythmic process beginning with the hunt and harvest of willow in autumn — followed by sorting, bunding, and storing. Joy began rug braiding in the 1970s. Over time, Joy moved on from rug braiding, leading her to a period of experimentation, and ultimately to reclaiming and reorienting her love of gathering and process with willow, grounding her to the earth. Sara Mast, a descendant of miners from Cornwall, England, resides on the site of Storrs, Montana, an early Anaconda Company mining town. Today, she incorporates PEM (plasma enhanced melter) glass into her work. PEM is a byproduct of plasma gasification, an advanced waste management technology that turns any kind of trash into inert, non-toxic glass and clean fuels. Mast writes, “PEM glass is not just another art material, but represents a profound paradigm shift in using technology to heal our environmental dilemma by keeping waste out of landfills and greenhouse gases out of the air. My use of PEM glass is one way I am able to reclaim a healthy relationship with the earth.”

2) International Linen Biennial in Portneuf (BILP)
Heritage sites throughout Deschambault-Grondines 
Quebec, Canada
June 18 – October 1, 2023
https://biennaledulin.com/

Blair Tate, from the 10th Linen Biennial in Quebec
Dialogue, detail, Blair Tate, from the 10th Linen Biennial in Quebec. Photo courtesy of Blair Tate

Anneke Klein (the Netherlands) Blair Tate (United States of America) Stéphanie Jacques (Belgium), Carole Frève (Québec) will all participate in the upcoming biennial of Linen — the 10th in Portneuf. The biennial will feature two exhibitons; the work of 20 professional artist; 20 emerging artists; multiple mediation activities and a day of converences. 

3) Couples in Craft
Craft in America Museum
Los Angeles, CA
through September 24, 2023
https://www.craftinamerica.org/exhibition/couples-in-craft/

Jim and Veralee Bassler
Jim and Veralee Bassler at the opening of Couples at the Craft in America Gallery in LA.

Couples in Craft highlights artist couples that specifically work in fiber and ceramics, either collaboratively or independently. While very different in their physical qualities—malleable and rigid, vegetable and mineral—both media require methodical construction processes that can take years to master. Many of these artist couples met during their formative educational years and thus share a lifelong dedication to each other and to their respective craft. These partners support and inspire each others’ extensive pursuit of mastering materials and continued exploration of their potential. Their intuitive knowledge of process allows for layers of meaning to become integrated into the works as they are made.

Among the artists included in this exhibition are Veralee Bassler and Jim Bassler. Veralee Bassler graduated from the UCLA Art Department with a concentration in ceramics. She shared her passion for creativity, teaching, and ceramics with the students of the Los Angeles School District for 25 years. Jim Bassler graduated from UCLA with an MA in Art in 1968 and later served there as professor and department chair between 1975–2000. Jim, recipient of the American Craft Council 2022 Gold Medal, is a renown weaver whose work adapts ancient Peruvian techniques and explores a range of materials and concepts. Veralee and Jim live and work in Palm Springs, CA.

4) At Own Pace: Włodzimierz Cygan 
7th Riga International Textile and Fibre Art Triennial
Mentzendorff’s House 
Grēcinieku iela 18, Riga, Latvia
through July 27, 2023

Włodzimierz Cygan Fiber Optic weaving detail
From the series Between the Lines. Detail, Włodzimierz Cygan, Linen, optic fiber, weaving, artist’s own technique. 2021. Courtesy of the artist. 

https://www.lnmm.lv/en/museum-of-decorative-arts-and-design/news/programme-of-the-7th-riga-international-textile-and-fibre-art-triennial-quo-vadis-139

Baiba Osīte: Exodus
7th Riga International Textile and Fibre Art Triennial
Art Station Dubulti 
Z. Meierovica prospekts 4, 

Baiba Osīte. XXX. 1993.
Baiba Osīte. XXX. 1993. linen, cotton, wood, artist’s own technique. Collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art. Publicity photo

Jūrmala, Latvia https://www.lnmm.lv/en/museum-of-decorative-arts-and-design/news/programme-of-the-7th-riga-international-textile-and-fibre-art-triennial-quo-vadis-139

The 7th Riga International Textile and Fibre Art Triennial,  QUO VADIS? unites 79 artists from 30 countries who were selected by an international jury from 237 submissions. Responding to the motto of the triennial, QUO VADIS? (Where Are We Going?), the authors, through their works, partake in conversations about the evolution of art and this particular field today as well as global geopolitical and social problems, engaging in self-reflection through the perspective of their time and art form. 

The Triennial features an exciting solo exhibition by the internationally acclaimed Polish guest-artist Włodzimierz Cygan at the Mentzendorff’s House in Riga and one featuring Latvian artist Baiba Osite.

5)  Ferne Jacobs: A Personal World
Claremont Lewis Museum of Art
Claremont, California
through September 24, 2023

Origins by Ferne Jacobs
Origins, Ferne Jacobs, 2017-2018, Craft in America, Metro Madizon

https://clmoa.org/exhibit/ferne-jacobs-a-personal-world/

Ferne Jacobs: A Personal World at the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art presents the work of Ferne Jacobs, a pioneer in fiber arts who creates unique three-dimensional sculptural forms using ancient basket-making techniques. Ferne Jacobs: A Personal World features a broad selection of her sculptures as well as books of her psychological drawings and collage diaries. 

6) Jane Balsgaard
Galleriet Hornbæk
Hornbæk, Denmark
Summer 2023

http://xn--galleriethornbk-bmb.dk/category/jane-balsgaard/

Paper Ship by Jane Balsgaard
Paper Ship by Jane Balsgaard. Photo courtesy of Jane Balsgaard

Jane Balsgaard’s work is available this summer at Susanne Risom’s Galleriet Hornbæk in Denmark.

7) Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890 – 1980
Milwaukee Art Museum
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
through July 23, 2023

https://mam.org/exhibitions/scandinavian-design/

Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980 is the first exhibition to explore the extensive design exchanges between the United States and Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Iceland during the 20th century.  It includes works by Helena Hernmarck who moved from Sweden to the US, and Lenore Tawney, who studied with noted Finnish weaver Martta Taipale at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.

8) Indigo 
Denver Botanic Garden
York Street Location
Denver, Colorado
July 2 – November 5, 2023 

Synapse indigo weaving byPolly Barton
Synapse, Polly Barton, to appear in Indigo, at the Denver Botanical Gardens. Photo by Tom Grotta

https://www.botanicgardens.org/exhibits/indigo

Rich and alluring, the striking blue color known as indigo has inspired weavers, dyers, designers, and sculptors across the globe. This exhibition, which  contemporary artists from the United States, Nigeria, Japan and South Korea Includes several works loaned by browngrotta arts  from artists Polly Barton, Eduardo Portillo and Mariá Dávila, Chiyoko Tanaka, Hiroyuki Shindo, and Yeonsoon Chang.

9) Shaped by the Loom: Weaving Worlds in the American Southwest
Bard Graduate Center Gallery
New York, New York
through July 9, 2023

https://www.bgc.bard.edu/exhibitions/exhibitions/117/n-a

Shaped by the Loom: Weaving Worlds in the American Southwest invites you to explore the world of Navajo weaving. This dynamic gallery and online experience presents never-before-seen textiles created by Diné artists. These historic blankets, garments, and rugs from the American Museum of Natural History are situated alongside contemporary works by Diné weavers and visual artists, such as Barbara Teller Ornelas and Lynda Teller Pete.

10) Expressing Cloths: Oceanian Modeling and Shigeki Fukumoto/Shigeko Fukumoto
Aomori Contemporary Art Center
Aomori, Japan
through June 14, 2023

https://acac-aomori.jp/program/2023-1/

This exhibition features Fukumoto, who has pursued an expression that can only be achieved through “dyeing” through his insight into the theory of craftsmanship in Oceania and Japan, and handcrafted fabrics that have been handed down since before textiles, such as tapa (bark cloth) and knitted fabrics from Melanesia in the South Pacific. In recent years Shioko Fukumoto has developed works using old natural fabrics that were made and used in rural life and labor. Three works. By group, we will think about the expression that can only be achieved with cloth, and the possibilities of cloth as a medium of expression. Both Fukomotos have visited Papua, New Guinea on more than one occasion.

Then and Now … works across time

May 17, 2023 0 Comment

In compiling works for our Spring 2023 exhibition, Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists, we gathered works from several decades. Many of those included were artists with longstanding careers. They were pioneers, active in the early days of the fiber movement and still innovating today. At browngrotta arts, we have always sought to exhibit artists who are willing to experiment — push boundaries, reinvent themselves and the medium. Acclaim! offered many fascinating examples of artists whose work transformed throughout their careers.

Cherry Ys, Dorothy Gill Barnes, waxed linen, raffia, and cherry branches, 31.25″ x 15″ x 3.5″, 1970-1980.
Willow with Log, Dorothy Gill Barnes, willow, 40″ x 20″ x 15″, 1998. Photos by Tom Grotta.

In some cases, like Dorothy Gill Barnes’ work, a logical progression from earlier to current work is apparent. Cherry Ys is a study that Barnes had created when more traditional weaving was a larger part of her process. Some 30 years later she created Willow with Log — weaving again, but this time with a material she has mastered — tree bark. 

The Mourners, Dominic Di Mare, waxed linen, wood, (Back row from left to right: 48.5″ x 24″; 46″ x 24″; 50.5″ x 24″; 47″ x 24″) Front row from left to right: 49.5″ x 24″ ; 46.5″ x 24″; 48.5″ x 24″).
Mourning Station #4, Dominic Di Mare, hawthorn, handmade paper, silk, bone, bird’s egg, feathers, gold and wood beads, 13″ x 7″ x 7″, 1981. Photos by Tom Grotta.

Dominic Di Mare is widely known for captivating sculptures of simple materials like carved hawthorn branches with delicate feathers, beads, paper, eggs, and horsehair. In Di Mare’s hands, these were transformed into intensely poetic and spiritual works which he made in the 79s. For Acclaim!, however, we were able to show Di Mare’s intriguing assemblages and a series of elegant weavings, The Mourners, that he had made in the 1960s.

Five Panel #2, Warren Seelig, corduroy weave 48″ x 55″ x 1″, 1972. Small Double Ended, Warren Seelig, nylon, stainless steel, 63″ x 33″ x 16.375, 1996, Photos by Thomas Grotta.

The transition from early to later work was even more dramatic in the works included in Acclaim! by Warren Seelig. Five Panel #2 is a complex corduroy weaving from the 1970s. You’d be forgiven if you didn’t recognize, Small Double Ended, of metal and fiber, as a work by Seelig made nearly 25 years later.

Landform, Lia Cook, cotton, 14.25″ x 12″ x 2.25″, 1978; Legs, Lia Cook, cotton, 14.25″ x 12″ x 4.5″, 1977.Presence/Absence: In the Folds, Lia Cook, cotton, rayon; woven, 192” x 41”, 1997. Photos by Tom Grotta.

There are few artists who have mastered as many bodies of work as Lia Cook. Acclaim! included Landform and Legs, pop-art-like weavings that Cook made in the 70s, shortly after completing a Master’s degree in 1973. Also exhibited was Presence/Absence: In the Folds, created two decades later. By that time, Cook was creating works on a Jacquard loom based upon photographs. In between, she had worked with painted strips of cloth to create fabric mosaics of sorts and since, she has been integrated EEG reports into her weavings.

You can see all the works in Acclaim! in our online exhibition on Artsy. You can hear more about the works by joining us for Art on the Rocks, an art talkthrough with spirits! on Zoom on June 9, 2023.

Sneak Peek: Acclaim! Opens Saturday

April 26, 2023 0 Comment
Colorful Jane Sauer fiber sculpture
15js Genesis, Jane Sauer, waxed linen and pigment, 11″ x 17″ x 8″, 2001. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Here are more images to pique your interest in our Spring “Art in the Barn” exhibition. Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists features more than 40 artists who have created art textiles, fiber sculpture and mixed media work from the 60s to the present. Each has received accolades, recognition, and awards. Among the works that will be included are several very rare and special works from the resale market.

Among these special works are Genesis, a colorful and whimsical work from 2001 by noted artist and gallerist Jane Sauer. The Smithsonian says that Sauer’s pieces “reflect her life as a mother to her children and as a productive, professional artist. [Her] closed baskets symbolize these different roles, evoking the sheltering environment of the womb and the ‘personal space’ that all artists require to create their work.”

Two Cynthia Schira textiles
1csh Nightfall, Cynthia Schira, cotton and linen with fabric backing, 28.5 x 28.5, 1979 and 2csh Spring Lyric, Cynthia Schira, cotton and linen with rod, 27″ x 26″, 1979

Another artist whose work we are excited to be including in Acclaim! is Cynthia Schira. Schira’s work often draws imagery from the notational codes, ciphers, and diagrams that visualize systems of knowledge in different disciplines and professions. The works in Acclaim!, Nightfall and Spring Lyric have that sense; they resemble notes jotted down in haste or using shorthand.

Warren Seelig stainless steel sculptures
5was Small Double Ended, Warren Seelig, nylon, stainless steel, 63″ x 33″ x 16.375; 6was Small White Wheel, Warren Seelig, nylon, stainless steel 62″ x 40″ x 12″, 1996. Photo by Tom Grotta.

New for browngrotta arts are also Warren Seelig’s works of metal and stone. Seelig has family ties to fiber milling and the textile industry and was exposed to both textiles and the textile manufacturing machinery. He received a BS from Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, where he created his first woven works, then an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1974. Seelig moved from woven works to unique structural, fan-like works using mylar frames and an innovative double-weave technique. He then shifted to suspended spoke-and-axle pieces and wall-mounted shadow fields, like White Wheel and Small Double Ended, and Stone Shadowfield which viewers will see in Acclaim! Seelig has been regularly commissioned to create installations for corporate offices and convention centers. Seelig teaches, curates, and writes on various subjects related to textile, fiber, and material studies. 

Gerhardt Knodel Jacquard weavings
1gkn Santa Cruz, Gerhardt Knodel, cotton twill tape painted and printed before weaving, Mylar, metallic gimp, linen, lined with cotton fabric, 24.75” x 57” x 1.5”, 1981. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Gerhardt Knodel is another artist new for browngrotta arts. Knodel has contributed to the evolution and identity of contemporary work in the fiber medium for more than four decades. For 25 years he led the graduate program in Fiber at Cranbrook Academy of Art, and subsequently was appointed Director, being awarded Director Emeritus in 2006. Knodel’s work with fiber includes installations, theater, architectural commissions, and the pictorial potential of weaving. In Acclaim! there are three works by Knodel each of which involves intricate patterning and interesting use of metallic threads. Santa Cruz features an image of the boardwalk in California; Jacquard Suite 7 and Jacquard Suite 10 interesting patterning.

29ddm Mourning Station #4, Dominic Di Mare, hawthorn, handmade paper, silk, bone, bird’s egg, feathers, gold and wood beads, 13″ x 7″ x 7″, 1981. Photo by Tom Grotta.

The works by Dominic Di Mare that is included in Acclaim! is particularly intriguing. It includes, The Mourners, a group of woven hangings from the early 60s. It also includes a work from 20 years later, Mourning Station #4, that features the artist’s characteristic assemblage of feathers, handmade paper, beads and woven silk, one of what the Smithsonian calls his, “enigmatic sculptures from handmade papers, polished hawthorne twigs, and feathers.”

Hope you can join us at Acclaim!

Location:
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road Wilton, CT 06897

Artist Reception and Opening: 
April 29, from 11am to 6 pm

Remaining Days:
Sunday, April 30th: 11AM to 6 PM (40 visitors/ hour)
Monday, May 1st – Saturday, May 6th: 10AM to 5PM (40 visitors/ hour)
Sunday, May 7th: 11AM to 6PM [Final Day] (40 visitors/ hour)

Protocols: 
Eventbrite reservations strongly encouraged • No narrow heels please (barn floors)

Reserve a spot:
Eventbrite

8ddm The Mourners, Dominic Di Mare, waxed linen, wood, (Back row from left to right: 48.5″ x 24″; 46″ x 24″; 50.5″ x 24″; 47″ x 24″) Front row from left to right: 49.5″ x 24″ ; 46.5″ x 24″; 48.5″ x 24″) 1962-63. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Sneak Peek: Acclaim! Opens Next Saturday – The Luminaries

April 19, 2023 0 Comment
Ed Rossbach plastic Wall Hanging
Gateway, Ed Rossbach, yellow and white plastic, foam rubber and plastic tape, 53.5″ x 56″ x 2.5″, 1970, photo by Tom Grotta

Our Spring “Art in the Barn,” Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists, is a truly stellar event. We’ve gathered work by 51 luminaries in art textiles, sculpture and mixed media for this exhibition. Each of them has achieved some formal recognition — an Artist of the Year Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, a Gold Medal or honor from a king (of Sweden) or queen (of the UK). Works from the 60s join works from 2023 — offering viewers perspective on the contemporary fiber art movement from its origins to the present. Here’s your sneak peak at the work by some of the best-known of the prominent artists that make up Acclaim!

Mickey Mouse Bowl by Ed Rossbach
New Mickey Bowl, Ed Rossbach, paper and various fibers, 12.5″ x 12.5″ x 12.5″, 1995. Photo by Tom Grotta

Among the artists included in Acclaim! is Ed Rossbach. Rossbach is known as the “father of contemporary basketry.” Relentlessly inventive, he experimented with materials and techniques and encouraged and inspired others to do the same. Acclaim! includes two quintessential examples of Ed’s ouevre. One is a wall hanging, Gateway, constructed of plastic, tape, and foam rubber, which now seems like a particularly prescient contemplation on the intersections between materiality and climate change. The other work, The New Mickey Bowl, is a large basket featuring Mickey Mouse. Rossbach often used pop imagery in his work, including John Travolta and pages from Sports Illustrated, but Mickey Mouse for an image he used repeatedly in various forms, woven, transferred, crocheted. There was irony in the choice. Rossbach said, “I like Mickey Mouse. I think it’s partly because it’s a defensive attitude on my part, that what people think very much is Mickey Mouse. They refer to the classes that you teach as Mickey Mouse classes, and everything is just dismissed as, ‘It’s Mickey Mouse.'” Rossbach found that embracing Mickey was a way to respond. “So I put a Mickey Mouse on baskets and the most elaborate textile; I wove Mickey Mouse in double damask,” he told an interviewer laughing. “I did him in ikats. I’ve done a lot of Mickey Mouses. And Mickey Mouses sell,” he added wryly. 

Sheila Hicks Wall Hanging
Araucario, Sheila Hicks, linen, cotton, nylon and araucario, 39.375″ x 39.375″ x 3.125″, 2015. Photo by Tom Grotta

From Sheila Hicks we have Araucaria, which incorporates cones from a evergreen coniferous tree. Hicks is a lauded American artist known for her innovative and experimental weavings and sculptural textile art that incorporate distinctive colors, natural materials, and personal narratives. Her diverse approach to textiles put her at the center of the burgeoning Fiber Art movement of the 1960s and ’70s, in which artists, were inventing new possibilities for pliable mediums. As the Museum of Modern Art has noted, Hicks is “[c]aptivated by structure, form, and color, she has looked to weaving cultures across the globe to shape her work at varying scales.” Hicks has exhibited internationally in both solo and group exhibitions. She was included in the 2017 Venice Biennial, 2014 Whitney Biennial in New York,  the 2012  São Paulo Biennial in Brazil. Recent solo presentations include Lignes de Vie at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2018 and Free Threads 1954-2017 Museo Amparo, Mexico.” A major retrospective, Sheila Hicks: 50 Years, debuted at the Addison Gallery of American Art and traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia and the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. 

Assemblage by Lenore Tawney
Book of Foot, Lenore Tawney, assemblage, 22.25″ x 5.375″ x 5.75″, 1996, photo by Tom Grotta

We have two works by Lenore Tawney in this exhibition. Lenore Tawney (1907 – 2007) was an American artist known for her groundbreaking work in fiber as well as for her drawings, collages, and assemblages. She, like Sheila Hicks, was at the center of the move to take textiles off the loom and off the wall. Her imagery and invention extended to her collages. There are two of those included in Acclaim!, Gift Pipe and The Book of Foot. They are both examples of Tawney’s collages that mixed found objects, newsprint and her drawings. She sent hundreds of postcard collages with cryptic, sometimes humorous messages to friends. 

1970s Olga de Amaral weaving
Untitled Columna, Olga de Amaral, cotton, wool, horsehair, 83.375” x 22”, 1970’s. Photo by Tom Grotta

An early weaving by the Colombian artist Olga de Amaral is included in Acclaim!. Columnar Untitled is a vividly colored tapestry that incorporates horsehair. She is an important figure in the development of Latin-American post-war abstraction. She is known for her large-scale abstract works made with fiber, gesso, paint and prescious metals. She studied at Cranbrook Scool of Art,  As her website explains, “she transforms the two-dimensional textile structure into sculptural presences that seamlessly blend art, craft, and design. I their engagement with materials and processes, her works become essentially unclassifiable and self reflective. 

Kay Sekimachi Leaf Bowl
Leaf Bowl, Kay Sekimachi, skeleton of big leaf maple, 5.75″ x 6″ x 6″, 2011, Photo by Tom Grotta

Also included in Acclaim! are two rare works by Kay Sekimachi. Sekimachi is an American fiber artist and weaver, best known for her three-dimensional woven monofilament hangings as well as her intricate baskets and bowls. The Smithsonian describes her artistic journey this way: “Kay Sekimachi learned to make origami figures and to paint and draw while in an incarceration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.  She enrolled at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1946, spent two summers at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, and by 1949 was weaving large, complex wall hangings. In the late 1970s, Sekimachi began to create small pots and bowls that combine Japanese paper with materials left over from her weaving.” In Acclaim!  we’ll exhibit one of Sekimachi’s prized leaf bowls and a blue paper basket through which threads are incorporated.

Hope you can join us later this month or in early May for Acclaim! Details appear below:

Location:
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road Wilton, CT 06897
Artist Reception and Opening: April 29, from 11am to 6 pm

Remaining Days:
Sunday, April 30th: 11AM to 6 PM (40 visitors/ hour)
Monday, May 1st – Saturday, May 6th: 10AM to 5PM (40 visitors/ hour)
Sunday, May 7th: 11AM to 6PM [Final Day] (40 visitors/ hour)

Protocols: 
Eventbrite reservations strongly encouraged • No narrow heels please (barn floors)

Reserve a spot: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/acclaim-work-by-award-winning-international-artists-tickets-568340761517?aff=ebdshpsearchautocomplete

Wordplay Opens Next Week!

March 22, 2023 0 Comment
Wordplay Header Graphic
153L Then 2012 , Gyöngy Laky, ash, commercial wood, paint, screws, 19” x 19”, 2012; 62jm The Other Side of the Moon, John McQueen, white pine bark and vine, 32″ x 18″ x 14″, 1992. Photo by Tom Grotta

It’s just one week until the opening of Wordplay: Messages in Branches and Bark, presented by browngrotta arts and the Flinn Gallery, Greenwich Library, Greenwich, CT.  WordPlay highlights the work of Gyöngy Laky and John McQueen, artists known for innovative sculptures made of twigs and bark deftly combined with manmade materials. The works in Wordplay involve visual puns and puzzles, text and symbols that delighted viewers will want to decode. Both artists use materials found in nature in combination with unexpected manmade elements to create baskets and other recognizable forms, such as words, symbols, books, and animal and human figures. 

Gyöngy Laky in her studio
Gyöngy Laky in her studio. Photos by Tom Grotta

Textile artist and sculptor Gyöngy Laky (b. 1944) has been described as a “wood whisperer.” Her highly individual, puzzle-like assemblages of wood and found objects have helped to propel the growth of the modern fiber-arts movement. Laky is known for contemporary basketmaking, large, 3-dimensional letters, words, and symbols, and indoor and outdoor installations. She uses organic materials like apple branches and orchard trimmings and combines them with manufactured materials, such as screws, wire, zip-ties, golf tees, toothpicks, and coffee stirrers. Laky considers herself an “artist participant” and comments upon environmental and political issues that are of concern to her.

John McQueen in his studio
John McQueen in his studio. Photos by Tom Grotta

Sculptor John McQueen (b. 1943) uses willow, bamboo, birch bark, waxed string, found objects and manmade materials to create life-like animal and human images, and objects such as baskets and books that incorporate woven text. Nearly all of his works employ traditional basketmaking techniques, which he learned at Pueblo reservations in New Mexico in the 1970s. Some of McQueen’s sculptures and wall art images include flattened and cut pieces of plastic bottles, which he uses to comment on the relationship between the natural and manmade world. All of the letters and symbols in his books, baskets, and wall text pieces form words and messages, some obvious and others that lead to “ah-ha” moments when properly deciphered. 

Wordplay graphic with work by both artists
131L Deviation, Gyöngy Laky, apple, acrylic paint, screws, 30” x 60” x 2.5”, 2020; 58jm Scoundrels’ Chronicles, John McQueen, twigs, waxed twine (Pigeon, Starling, Vulture, Sparrow, Crow, Blue Jay), 4″ x 19″ x 19″ (closed), 1992. Photos by Tom Grotta

Wordplay: Messages in Branches & Bark will include more than 50 sculptures by these two innovative artists. There are elements of wit, whimsy, and fantasy in many of the pieces, leaving visitors both awed and amused. All of the works on display are for sale and the proceeds go to the Friends of the Greenwich Library to support public programming for patrons of all ages.

Wordplay graphic with work by both artists
143L Equivoque, Gyöngy Laky, various prunings, dowels, 17” x 17” x 3” , 2004; 60jm Spekigntungs, John McQueen, willow, waxed string, 92″ x 109″, 2004. Photos by Tom Grotta

Wordplay: Messages in Branches and Bark coincides with Earth Day. Laky and McQueen are deeply concerned with the state of the world – environmentally, politically, and socially. Laky will participate in an Online Artist Talk on April 20th at 7 pm EST. McQueen will be at the Flinn Gallery for an Artist Talk on April 30th at 2 pm. The exhibition is accessible for people of all ages and will include hands-on activities for children, such as a materials “touch box” and “I Spy” and word search puzzles for various skill levels. Find more details below: 

HOURS 
M, T, W, F, Sa 10 am – 5 pm Th 10 am – 8 pm
Su 1 pm – 5 pm

OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, March 30, 6 – 8 pm

ARTIST TALKS & EXHIBITION WALKTHROUGHS
Saturday, April 15, 2 pm – Tom Grotta – Walkthrough
Thursday, April 20, Online, 7 pm – Gyöngy Laky – Artist Talk
Saturday, April 30, 2 pm – John McQueen – Artist Talk

LOCATION:
Flinn Gallery, Greenwich Library, Second Floor 101 West Putnam Avenue Greenwich, CT 06830 203.622.7947.

RESERVATIONS (Not required but recommended) 
Reservations for the artist talks and walkthrough are recommended but not required: EventBrite.

Art Out and About: In the US and Abroad

March 15, 2023 0 Comment

So many exhibitions to visit this Spring from Sweden, Australia and the UK to California, Washington and New York — and two in Connecticut. Check them out.

Beauty and the Unexpected
Modern and Contemporary American Crafts
National Museum
Södra Blasieholmshamnen 2
Stockholm, Sweden
March 30, 2023 – January 21, 2024

Gyöngy Laky Incident
Incident, Gyöngy Laky, from Beauty and the Unexpected exhibition in Stockholm, Natural and commercial wood, paint,
bullets for building (screws), 50” x 50” x 4.5”, 2012. Photo by Tom Grotta

National Museum has invited Helen W. Drutt English, pioneering craft educator and gallerist of American Modern and Contemporary Crafts since the 1960s, to assemble a collection of objects drawn from the field of “American Crafts.” The selection of 81 works from the 1950s until today will in future enrich National Museum’s collections and will provide a possibility to look at American Crafts in the Nordic context.

International Textile Art Biennale 
(Fibre Arts Australia)
Emu Park Art Gallery
EMU Park
13 Hill Street
Queensland, Australia 
From April 15 – June 10, 2023

Neha Puri Dhir handwoven silk
Overflow by Neha Puri Dhir, stitch-Resist Dyeing on Handwoven Silk (Diptych), 95 x 128cm 95 x 32cm, 2022. Photo by Neha Puri Dhir

Fibre Arts Australia is highlighting the contemporary practice within Art Textiles as an art form.

​The International Art Textile Biennale (IATB) seeks to exhibit the best of contemporary art textiles and invited submissions, from Australia and Internationally, that reflect a wide range of works related to the textile medium. Thirty-five artists were selected to participate, including Neha Puri Dhir. The works are exhibited at various locations throughout Australia.

Wendy Wahl Installation
Wendy Wahl Installation. Photo by Brooke Yung, assistant curator

Paper Town
Fitchburg Art Museum
185 Elm Street
Fitchburg, MA 01420
Through June 4, 2023

This exhibition takes paper out of the two-dimensional into a world that is fantastical, intricate, colorful, and personal. Inspired by the materiality of paper and the metamorphic quality of the papermaking process, Paper Town explores paper in pulp, cast, folded, and cut forms. The exhibition includes artwork by several artists located in New England:  May Babcock, Erik and Martin Demaine, Andrea Dezsö, Tory Fair, Hong Hong, Fred Liang, Michelle Samour, Heidi Whitman and browngrotta artist Wendy Wahl.

Polly Barton Irate
Works by Polly Barton, James Bassler and others in Ikat: A World of Compelling Cloth. Photo by Polly Barton.

Ikat: A World of Compelling Cloth
Seattle Art Museum
1300 First Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
Through May 29, 2023

Visitors to Ikat: A World of Compelling Cloth, will enter the woven world of ikat, a complex textile pattern that knows no borders. Presenting over 100 textiles from the museum’s global collection with gifts and loans from a dedicated Seattle-area collector, Ikat: A World of Compelling Cloth is an introduction to the meticulous and time-honored processes of dyeing threads to create complicated hand-weaving. Contemporary work in the exhibition includes tapestries by Polly Barton and James Bassler, and an extraordinary installation by Rowland Ricketts.

Connective Threads
Palos Verde Cultural Center
Fiber Art from Southern California
Curated by Carrie Burckle and Jo Lauria
Through April 15, 2023

Carol Shaw-Sutton installation
Persephone’s Filters by Carol Shaw-Sutton. Photo by Carol Shaw-Sutton

Connective Threads provides a window into what is currently engaging fiber artists, even as this discipline continues to evolve and change. Emanating from artists’ studios in Southern California, the exhibition offers unique perspectives on the complicated identities of fiber art as a genre. Collectively they offer a penetrating examination of fiber’s possibilities. Exhibiting artists include Jim Bassler, Cameron Taylor-Brown, Ben Cuevas, Mary Little, Michael F. Rohde, and Carol Shaw-Sutton. 

Detail Magdalena Abakanowicz
Magdalena Abakanowicz’s Montana del Fuego detail by Tom Grotta

Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope
Tate Modern
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
Through May 21, 2023

In the ’60s and ’70s, the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz created radical sculptures from woven fibers. They were soft, not hard; ambiguous and organic; towering works that hung from the ceiling and pioneered a new form of installation. They became known as the “Abakans.” Many of the most significant Abakans are brought together at the Tate Modern in a forest-like display in a 64-meter long gallery space.

The exhibition explores this transformative period of Abakanowicz’s practice when her woven forms came off the wall and into three-dimensional space. With these works she brought soft, fibrous forms into a new relationship with sculpture. A selection of early textile pieces and her little-known drawings are also on show.

And of course, there are the four “don’t miss” events browngrotta arts is involved in this Spring.

Norma Minkowitz installation
Norma Minkowitz: Body to Soul installation. Photo by Tom Grotta

Norma Minkowitz: Body to Soul
Fairfield University Art Gallery
Bellarmine Hall
Fairfield, CT
Through April 6, 2023

Gyöngy Laky and John McQueen
Out on a Limb by Gyöngy Laky and Billboard by John McQueen from the WordPlay exhibition.

Wordplay: Messages in Branches & Bark 
Flinn Gallery: Greenwich Library
101 West Putnam Avenue 
Greenwich, CT
March 30 – May 10, 2023

Aby Mackie detail
Detail: We Can All Be Saved 10 by Aby Mackie, gilded gold lead decontructed and reconfigured antique textiles, 2022. Photo by Tom Grotta

Making a Mark: The Art of Self Expression
Bay Street Theater
1 Bay Street
Sag Harbor, NY
Through May 7, 2023

And last, but not least, our Spring Art in the Barn at browngrotta arts:

Dominic Di Mare installation
The Mourners, Dominic Di Mare from the Acclaim! Works by Award-Winning Artists exhibition, waxed linen, wood, 46.5″-50.5″(h) x 24″each, 1962. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road
Wilton, CT
April 29 – May 7, 2023

Save the Date! Spring Art in the Barn at bga April 29 – May 7, 2023

March 8, 2023 0 Comment
29ddm Mourning Station #4, Dominic Di Mare, hawthorn, handmade paper, silk, bone, bird’s egg, feathers, gold and wood beads, 13″ x 7″ x 7″, 1981. Photo by Tom Grotta

For Spring 2023, browngrotta arts is pleased to announce a wide-ranging exhibition of work by noted artists from around the world. Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists (April 29 – May 7) will highlight mixed media, fiber sculpture and contemporary textile artists artists creating and advancing the field of fiber arts now and throughout the last six decades, including Sheila Hicks, Dominic Di Mare, Kay Sekimachi, Jiro Yonezawa, Carolina Yrarrázaval and Ed Rossbach.

5pco Microgauze 84, Peter Collingwood, Warp: Black and natural linen; Weft: natural linen, 72″ x 8.375″ x .125″, 1970. Photo by Tom Grotta

Awards by the dozen
The nearly 50 artists in Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists, have each achieved formal art acknowledgement in the form of an award or medal or selective membership. In the US, that may mean the award of a Gold Medal from the American Craft Council — 10 of the artists in Acclaim! belong to that group. In Canada, it means membership in the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, which three of our artists have achieved. The late masterweaver Peter Collingwood received an OBE, Order of the British Empire. Yeonsoon Chang of Korea was selected Artist of the Year by the Contemporary Art Museum in Seoul. In France, Simone Pheulpin was awarded the Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris. Grethe Sørensen of Denmark and Agneta Hobin of Finland received the Nordic Award in Textiles. Sheila Hicks of the US,  was awarded the French Legion of Honor and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center; Helena Hernmarck received the American Institute of Architects, Craftsmanship Medal and the Prins Eugen Medal conferred by the King of Sweden for “outstanding artistic achievement.”

26yc The Path which leads to the center II, Yeonsoon, Chang, teflon mesh, pure gold leaf, eco resin, 25″ x 50″ x 6″, 2022. Photo by Tom Grotta

Results of recognition
Receiving an award can provide important affirmation for an artist. “There are no other large prizes in the UK for artists working in this medium,” says Jo Barker, winner of the Cordis Prize. “So what winning mostly felt like to me was a real validation of the career that I’ve had so far.” Such recognition can influence the direction of an artist’s work. Lia Cook’s Gold Medal from the American Craft Council provided her support for her process — particularly, she says, for “my continued interest in following the unexpected.” Once selected as Artist of the Year by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea, Yeonsoon Chang saw her textile work in the broader scope of contemporary art. “Objective recognition gave me courage to work and a sense of responsibility,” she says. For Chang, the award also meant expanded interest in her work from museums, galleries, and collectors. Winning Best Visual Arts Exhibition of the Year from the Circle of Critics of Art in Chile was a recognition of 40 years of work  for Carolina Yrarrázaval  and a confirmation for all those who believed in her work, clients, galleries and museums. More importantly, Yrarrázaval says, it was the first time that textile art received this award in Chile, placing it on par with all disciplines in visual arts. “It was not only a recognition of my personal contribution,” she says, “but also to this discipline, which for a long time was seen as a minor art.”

25cy Deseos Ocultos, Carolina Yrarrazaval, jute, linen, paper and raffia, 60.5″ x 30.5″ x 1″, 2023. Photo by Tom Grotta

Art undeterred
After some years of being overlooked and undervalued, contemporary textile art has finally been embraced (again) in the last several years by a wider world of museums and galleries. The current focus on artists working in fiber finds complex, thoughtful and accomplished work – some produced today and some in years when gallery and museum attention was slight. “What may appear to be an explosion of textile producers, from a historical perspective, is an explosion of interest and awareness of a tradition that has always been important, deep and rich,” Adam Levine, director of the Toledo Museum of Art told Art News last year. (Katya Kazakina, The Art Detective: Textile Artists Are Back in the Public Spotlight in Museums and Galleries. Art Collectors? They’re Still Catching Up, February 4, 2022). in other words, even when out of popular favor, fiber artists were undeterred, continuing to create exceptional work.

A through line — then and now
The work in Acclaim! creates a through line from the movement’s early days to its current creative explosion, highlighting the importance of persistence and the benefits of recognition along the way. Fiber art’s revival in museums, galleries and with collectors is built upon the dedication and extraordinary talent of artists like those featured in Acclaim!

Join us next month
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road Wilton, CT 06897

Artist Reception and Opening: April 29, from 11am to 6 pm

Remaining Days
Sunday, April 30th: 11AM to 6 PM (40 visitors/ hour)

Monday, May 1st – Saturday, May 6th: 10AM to 5PM (40 visitors/ hour)
Sunday, May 7th: 11AM to 6PM [Final Day] (40 visitors/ hour)

Safety protocols 
Eventbrite reservations strongly encouraged • No narrow heels please (barn floors)

Reserve a spot here: RESERVE

Artist Focus: Ferne Jacobs

February 15, 2023 0 Comment
Installation Photo of Building the Essentials: Ferne Jacobs
Installation Photo of Building the Essentials: Ferne Jacobs. Photo: Madison Metro, Craft in America

At the forefront of the revolution in fiber art, Ferne Jacobs has been creating innovative work since the mid-60s. At her retrospective in 2022 in Los Angeles, Building the Essentials: Ferne Jacobs, the Craft in America Center noted that Jacobs is recognized for her mastery of material and process. Reinventing and advancing traditional techniques used for basketry, including knotting, coiling, and twining, Jacobs has generated an entirely new language of sculptural art. Her acute sense of color melded with her poetic and intuitive approach set her work apart. You can order a copy of the catalog at browngrotta.com.

Ferne Jacobs Portrait
Portrait by Carter Grotta

Ferne Jacobs began as a painter, exploring the possibilities of three-dimensional painting in the mid-1960s, before moving to weaving after workshops by such avant-garde fiber artists as Arline Fisch and Olga de Amaral. After the American Craft Museum (now Museum of Art and Design) exhibition Sculpture in Fabric (1972), Jacobs gained national attention for her work. Jacobs has taught and lectured on fiber arts and design since 1972. She received her M.F.A. from Claremont Graduate University in 1976 and has been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. She is the recipient of the Flintridge Foundation Award for Visual Artists, and in 1995 she was named a Fellow of the College of Fellows by the American Craft Council. 

Red Sculpture by Ferne Jacobs
3fj Interior Passages, Ferne Jacobs, coiled and twined waxed linen thread, 54” x 16” x 4”, 2017.
photos by Tom Grotta

Jacobs’ work is meticulous, intensive and personal. She felt particularly close to Interior Passages, “as though we are one and the same.” She says that “[t]his has never happened so completely to me before. It has caused me to ask why, and to try to find a way to explain it to others. In the world I find myself today, feminine values are often desecrated. I am beginning to understand that there is no such thing as a ‘second class citizen’ — anywhere, anytime. There are aspects of world culture where weak people try to control others; because that is the only way they feel their own existence.” Interior Passages emphatically resists that approach. “Interior Passages knows she exists,” Jacobs notes. “She needs no one to tell her who she is or what she is. She knows her value, and I expect the world to respect this inner understanding. When it doesn’t, I think it moves toward a destructiveness that can be devastating.”

Green Basket sculpture by Ferne Jacobs
4fj Open Globe, Ferne Jacobs, coiled and twined wax linen thread, 13” x 13”, 2001. Photo by Tom Grotta

Open Globe reflects Jacobs’ reaction to the environment. “The title Open Globe came from experiencing the piece as I was making it,” Jacobs explains. “In my mind, it was the earth. The colors green, brown, blue, grey are the elements on our planet. Open came because there is no bottom or top. The piece is open, so can we see the earth as a globe/ball and open/unending.” The undulations in Blue Wave operate on numerous levels, conjuring ancient Greek pottery, wave froth and water, and the female form among other references.

Detail of Blue and white Ferne Jacobs wall sculpture
5fj Blue Wave detail, Ferne Jacobs, coiled and twined waxed linen thread, 19” x 17.5” x 6”, 1994.
Photo by Tom Grotta

Jacobs’s work is found in many public collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, the de Young Museum, San Francisco, California and the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island. 

Ferne Jacobs’ work will be included in browngrotta arts’ spring 2023 exhibition Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists. You can order a copy of the catalog Ferne Jacobs: Building the Essentials at browngrotta.com.

Ferne Jacobs Building the Essentials catalog

Artist Focus: Lawrence LaBianca

January 11, 2023 0 Comment
Full Stop, Lawrence LaBianca
6ll Full Stop, Lawrence LaBianca, oak, modified trailer winch, cast glass, steel cable, 41″ x 40″ x 13″, 2007

The UN-declared International Year of Glass has just ended, but the many positive attributes of glass deserve to be recognized well into 2023. Among the attributes the UN cataloged are — glass’s role in communication at optical fiber, the fact that it is chemically resistant and used in creating and distributing Covid vaccines, that bioglass can stimulate bone growth and healing, and that glass sheets are used to create solar energy. Of most interest to browngrotta arts, the UN also noted that “Glass artists across the globe have given humankind an awareness of this wonderful material including its remarkable methods of fabrication, inherent beauty, and ability to capture and display nature’s full spectrum of color.”

Wayne Art Center installation of Timeline by Lawrence LaBianca
Wayne Art Center installation of 5ll Timeline by Lawrence LaBianca, walnut ladle, cast glass,steel, 10″ x 48″ x 10″ , 2000

Lawrence LaBianca is one of those artists. He creates glass elements for many of his works, in addition to creating elements of wood and wrought iron and photography. Six of LaBianca’s works are featured in Beyond Glass at the Wayne Art Center in Pennsylvania through January 21, 2023. Beyond Glass, curated by Josephine Shea, gathers artists who choose varied techniques and materials to create work that combines glass with other materials, such as metal, wood, or found objects. Invited from across the United States and beyond, the exhibit also provides a sliver of history, as glass migrated from the factory floor in the early 1960s and returned to the artist’s studio. 

3lb Camphor, Lawrence LaBianca, glass with photo, branch, steel, 12″ x 22″ x 7″, 1999

Among the works of LaBianca’s in Beyond Glass is Camphor. In it the artist has mounted a branch on an iron stand, topped with a piece of glass, into which has been embedded a photographic image of the branch, creating a tool through which the branch can be observed and understood in several different ways. “The tools we apply to nature—to contain it, shape it, understand it and categorize it—also have a profound affect upon it,” LaBianca explains. “It is this impetus to measure, understand, contain and manipulate nature that I enact through my work.”

LaBianca creates tool-forms that explore our relationship with nature through attention to craft, form, physicality, and the fluidity of the boundaries between these ideals. “His work is both abstract and narrative, as the materials with which he works assume new and idiosyncratic identities,” wrote the Virginia A. Groot Foundation in awarding the LaBianca a grant. LaBianca combines natural, organic materials such as wood with manufactured elements to create hybrids. Many of his pieces reference the human body to explore a variety of human emotions. For example, in Full Stop, tree branches and trunks are cut into discs and separated with blown pieces of glass to resemble vertebrae.  The natural sections of this structure appear to be supported and augmented by manufactured glass-like prosthetics.

7ll My Father’s Dream, Lawrence LaBianca, oak, green neon, transformer, cord, 24″ x 96″ x 10″, 2004. Photo by Tom Grotta.

In My Father’s Dream, LaBianca combines a large oak branch with green neon placed in a carved channel inside.  “This work references the dream world with its title and its night-green glow,” wrote Emily Raabe, “but it also implies the act of memory … the way that our memory allows us to hold our observations, emotions, dreams and stories in a state of restless simultaneity; a momentary abeyance that pulses under the force of our own imaginations.” LaBianca agrees about the role of memory.  “Memory leaves an imprint,” he says. “Through time these imprints become makers that provide us with insights of where we have been and once pieced together show us our path.”

The artist explains that My Father’s Dream was influenced by a memory of his fathers adaptation of our suburban home with the addition of a wood stove during the 70’s oil crisis. “During this time my dad would wake us up, very early, to collect wood that fell into our neighbors yards during ice storms. Our family station wagon could fit several limbs. These limbs needed to be of a certain length and of a certain wood which would optimize our outings. The limb used for My Father’s Dream is the optimal length, weight and fuel for such an outing.” 

For more examples of work by Lawrence LaBianca, a “blacksmith of the 21st century,” visit our website.