Category: Fiber Sculpture

Looking Forward/Looking Back: John Perreault

October 1, 2012 0 Comment

Anda Klancic, Lenore Tawney, Lewis Knauss
photos by Tom Grotta

“It is, in fact, the haptic, or touchable, nature of fiber art that throws off most art critics: they are only comfortable with the optic, granting tactile values a very low position on the aesthetic totem pole. In fiber art one cannot avoid the haptic and the haptic/optic conflict or, more graciously, the haptic/optic interplay. How fiber art looks is only part of the picture.

Dani Marti, Carolina Yrarrázaval, Sherrie Smith

Thus it is awkward, to say the least, that the English language and most particularly the critical language, is haptic-poor. Poetry can sometimes make amends, but is in itself an extremely specialized discourse, prone to enthusiasm at the expense of illumination. In the past the art critical language has been applied to some rather outrageous art: Earth Art, Anti-Form, Performance, Body Art, Conceptual Art, Patterning and Decoration. From this it may be gathered that any material criterion for art has been dislodged. Futurism and Dada insisted that art could be made of anything. If a pile of dirt, in certain cases, can be art, then why not a pile of fibers? If art can be made on a printing press, then why not on a loom? If art can be made by tossing molten lead against a wall, then why not by knotting threads? If art can quote the great “crafts” traditions, why cannot present day explorations of these materials and techniques be art too?”

Marian Bijlenga, Eva Vargo, Carolina Yeonsoon
photos by tom Grotta

John Perreault
then-Visual Arts Director, The Cultural Center
Staten Island, New York
From “Fiber Art: Gathering the Strands,” Fiber r/evolution, Milwaukee Art Museum, 1986

Looking Forward/Looking Back: Lloyd Cotsen

September 17, 2012 0 Comment

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

September 10, 2012 0 Comment

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

September 7, 2012 0 Comment

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.

Looking Forward/Looking Back: Sherman F. Lee

September 3, 2012 0 Comment

Details of Adela Akers 1988 Midnight and 2011 Triptych. Adela is one of the artists who was included in the 1977 Fiberworks exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Her work will be included in Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture this fall at browngrotta arts.

“The 20th century has been a period of numerous experiments in the arts based on new concepts, materials and techniques which have proliferated as never before in history. Some of these new developments, however, have been only fashionable and have been inappropriate exploitations of materials or techniques for very vague and general ideas. Among the exceptions to these trends, enjoying widespread and lasting success, has been the use of fibrous materials to create aesthetic equivalents of sculptures and paintings.

Adela Akers 1960 portrait. Photo Archives of American Art, aaa.si.edu. Courtesy of the artist.

New tools, techniques and synthetic fibers have fired artists’ imaginations. The variety of effects possible range from the predominantly decorative to the highly expressive. And unlike some other recent developments in the arts, contemporary fiber works rest firmly on long and substantial traditions from all major cultures. Although many new and significant forms have already appeared, the future seems to offer even further possiibiities for the growth of this art.”
Sherman F. Lee, then-Director
Cleveland Museum of Art 1977
from the Forward for Fiberworks catalog, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1977

Exhibitions Abroad: On and Upcoming

August 31, 2012 0 Comment

West Sweden
100 Beginnings
Through September 9th
Dalslands Konstmuseum

 

Dail Behennah installation Dalslands Konstmuseum

One Hundred Beginnings detail

The installation features Dail Behennah and highlights 100 ways of starting a basket, some works made of copper wire and some enamel.  Thicket, for example, is a three-dimensional drawings of twigs, made of iron wire. Dalslands Konstmuseum, Upperud 46440, Åsensbruk, Sweden. For information: phone +46530-30098; website: http://www.dalslandskonstmuseum.se.

 

Scotland
Weaving The Century: Tapestry from Dovecot Studios 1912-2012
Through October 7th
Dovecot Studios

Weaving The Century: Tapestry from Dovecot Studios 1912-2012 is the first major exhibition of tapestry in Scotland in more than 20 years. Curated by Elizabeth Cumming, the exhibition features more than 60 tapestries, rugs and designs spanning 100 years of Dovecot history including iconic and rarely seen works.The works in the exhibition represent the broad range of visual styles and technical weaving styles. In its 100 years, Dovecot Studios have collaborated with dozens of leading contemporary international artists including David Hockney, Paul Gauguin, Elizabeth Blackadder, Sir Peter Blake, Edward Wadsworth, Cecil Beaton, Graham Sutherland, Louise Nevelson and Claire Barclay.  Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. For information: phone: +44 (0)131 550 3660; website: http://www.dovecotstudios.com.

Wales
Michael Brennand-Wood: Forever Changes
Opens September 22nd; ends November 25th
Ruthin Craft Center

 

Forever Changes is an exhibition documenting Michael Brennand-Wood’s practice over 40 years. Forever Changes will feature many previously unseen, new and important works with the emphasis very firmly on the ideas behind each piece. The exhibition will include installation, sculptural, relief, studio and commission works. It will be accompanied by a 200-page illustrate book that will present a biography of the work, exhibitions, events, places and concepts that have shaped Brennand-Wood’s practice. Ruthin Craft Center, Lon Parcwr, Ruthin LL15 1 BB, Denbigshire, North Wales, United Kingdom. For information: phone: 01824 704774; website: http://www.ruthincraftcentre.org.uk/comingsoon.html.

Canada
Anthropomorphism
Through October 2012
Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal, Lilane and David M. Stewart Pavilion

INVADERS by Norma Minkowitz, photo by Bobby Hansson 1991

Norma Minkowitz’s work, Invaders is one of the works included in a themed grouping on anthropomorphism in a permanent decorative arts and design gallery at the Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal. Also included are works by Niki de Saint Phalle, Gaetano Pesce and Pablo Picasso. Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal,1380 Crescent Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; (514) 285-1600; website: www.mbam.qc.ca.

Process Notes: Permanence and Impermanence in Public Art – Randy Walker

August 18, 2012 0 Comment

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void

In March 2012, Randy Walker was the first grantee of the McKnight Project, which is funded by the McKnight Foundation and Forecast Public Art. The McKnight Project grant of $50,000 supports the creation of publicly accessible temporary or permanent artwork in Minnesota by a Minnesota-based mid-career public artist. Projects may be in any form or discipline, including performance, dance, storytelling, photography, film, sculpture, painting, etc. http://forecastpublicart.org/grants-mcknightproj.php.

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void

Walker, in partnership with YouthLink, a drop-in center for homeless youth, is installing a public art sculpture, Filling the Void, that the grant website describes as “a way finder and creative outlet” for the Kulture Klub Collaborative (KKC) http://www.kultureklub.org/about.html. KKC is an independent arts organization that brings together artists and homeless youth in the Twin Cities through multi-disciplinary workshops, open mics, cultural presentations and art outings. Walker’s project, Filling the Void, will consist of a permanent steel framework, a three-dimensional grid, that will act as a loom for a series of temporary fiber installations to be completed collaboratively by Walker and kids from YouthLink. After these initial installations, the framework will be programmed by KKC.  Future artists-in-residence will decide, together with the young people involved in the program, how, and in what media, the framework should be used.

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void 

“Filling the Void will be an exploration of permanence and impermanence in public art through a collaborative process,” says Walker. “As an artist who works with both durable, long-term materials and more temporal fibrous materials, I will investigate how a work of public art might bridge the gap between the ephermeral installation and a traditionally static, unchanging sculpture.  I believe there is a fertile middle ground, where a work of public art might be regenerated, renewed, and recreated periodically in different ways, by different community members, and even different artists,” he adds. “I am interested in how the ‘minimal routine maintenance’ so often invoked in the commissioning of public art might be an opportunity to celebrate a work of art, re-engaging it in the future, rather than the mere preservation of the object.”

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void

It is Walker’s hope that the sculpture will be a permanent framework upon which ever-changing installations will take place, in the same way YouthLink is a permanent fixture for the ever-changing homeless population it serves.  “It is a visible, public space that will be claimed and defined by a vibrant and creative population that lacks a space of their own,” Walker says.

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void

The images here are conceptual renderings, showing several possibilities for fiber installations, and potential ways the framework might be engaged using non-fiber media. They also provide insight into a piece of the grant application process, the importance of designing a presentation that enables decision makers to share the artist’s vision.

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void

Guest Post Alert: Carol Westfall

June 13, 2012 0 Comment

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Felt Balls for Peace, Carol Westfall, felted wool with barbed wire, 3″ each, 1994, photo by D. James Dee

We’ve uploaded a new guest post, Textiles and Politics by Carol Westfall. “Textile art is no exception to the rule that art both drives and documents political upheaval,” she writes. This post examines the textile in relationship to national and international political issues, including war, population control, energy and natural resource use and economic inequality. Westfall will be among the presenters at the Textile Society of America’s 13th Biennial Symposium in Washington, DC in September.

Art Event: Wendy Wahl Speaks at the Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, Connecticut, Sunday, June 10th

June 6, 2012 0 Comment

Wendy Wahl works on her installation “Uncovered Grove” at Newport Art Museum. The show will run through February 3, 2008. (photo by Jacqueline Marque)

This Sunday at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, at 2 p.m. artist Wendy Wahl will speak about her works of recycled encyclopedias and industrial paper. Wahl is one of 31 artists whose work is included in Paperworks: material as medium at the Flinn, curated by Kelly Eberly, Barbara Richards and Rhonda Brown and Tom Grotta of browngrotta arts in Wilton, Connecticut.

26ww SEEDS(of knowledge) WB vol.18/19 Wendy Wahl World Book encyclopedia pages on inked panel 21.25″ x 34.25″ x 1.625″, 2011

“I love the materiality of books,” says Wahl. Her “branches” of encyclopedia pages reference a medium in transition. Wahl began working with encyclopedias in 2005, though she had created works of industrial paper before that. Her works of repurposed encyclopedias address a set of ideas including accessibility and accumulation, synthesis and sustainability. Installations from this 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.

FlinnGallery installation of Paperworks: material as medium

“Digital media has led such artists as Wendy Wahl to re-evaluate the potency of the printed word,” Akiko Busch wrote 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.”

26ww Seeds(of knowledge) WB vol.18/19, Wendy Wahl, World Book encyclopedia pages on inked panel, 21.25” x 34.25” x 1.625”, 2011, photo by Tom Grotta

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). Her work is regularly reviewed on the Encyclopedia Britannica Blog.

PAPERWORKS Installation at the Flinn gallery

The Flinn Gallery is open daily from 10 – 5 pm on Monday – Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10-8 on Thursday and 1-5 on Sundays. The Gallery is sponsored by the Friends of the Greenwich Library. It is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library at 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT 06830. For more information contact the Gallery, 203-622-7947; email: curator@flinngallery.com or browngrotta arts, 203-834-0623; email: art@browngrotta.com.

Area Art Scene: Three Events in Greenwich

May 25, 2012 0 Comment

Art Greenwich exhibit

Three art events worth visiting in Greenwich, Connecticut: Docked at Delamar Greenwich Harbor this weekend is the floating exhibition, Art Greenwich on the luxury yacht, Seafair http://www.expoships.com.

Marko Remec’s tower of Bible pages at Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery

We attended the Art Greenwich opening last night and got an eyeful. The participating galleries feature work by contemporary artists in all media including paintings, photography, sculpture, installations and video. Among the artists whose work is displayed are Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson and Chuck Close.

Lin Yan Gray City #4, Amy Simon Gallery

We’ve got works  of paper in our sites for obvious reasons and we found several interesting works, including Chris Perry’s Ripple, at the the Brenda Taylor Gallery, Marko Remec’s intriguing tower of Bible pages at Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery and Gray City #4 by Chinese artist, Lin Yan, who has been inspired by Obama’s call to rebuild America “…block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand,” at the Amy Simon Gallery. The Seafair is open until 7 p.m. on Monday.

 

 

Chris Perry’s Ripple, at the the Brenda Taylor Gallery

Paperworks: material as medium, which features more than 80 works, remains open today at the Flinn Gallery in the Greenwich Library just up the hill from the Seafair,   until 5 p.m.,and again beginning next Tuesday, May 29th through June 21st. For more information, call: 203-622-7947. Finally, as you travel Greenwich Avenue between these exhibitions, check out the retail locations featuring works by 131 artists as the city celebrates its 15th Art to the Avenue.

PAPERWORKS: Material and Medium at the Flinn gallery