During our recent trip to Washington, DC we visited Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction, through July 28, 2024 at the National Gallery. We are not going to pout about the fact that it has taken a few decades for contemporary fiber art to make it into the hallowed halls of the National Gallery. We are just going to revel in this expansive textile coming out party — an exhibition that challenges, however belatedly, the hierarchies that often separate textiles from fine arts.

The 150 objects in Woven Histories highlight a diverse range of transnational and intergenerational artists who have shaped the field including: Ruth Asawa, Anni Albers, Lenore Tawney, Kay Sekimachi, Sheila Hicks, Rosemarie Trockel, and Diedrick Brackens. There are also painters and sculptors like Agnes Martin and Eva Hesse whose work also played a role in modern abstraction. 

Curated by Lynne Cooke, the exhibition offers “a fresh and authoritative look at textiles — particularly weaving — as a major force in the evolution of abstraction.” Basketry is given prominence. Cook notes in the book that accompanies the exhibition, Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction, that basketry was a moribund artform in the mid-60s, when Ed Rossbach began his “[s]triving for expressive content, signification and meaning” within basketry’s time-tested techniques. The exhibition highlights others creating basket referents, including John McQueen, Dorothy, Gill Barnes, Martin Puryear, and Yvonne Koolmatrie.

There are more than 50 artists whose work is included. The timeline is expansive — beginning with work created during World War I by Sophie Taeuber-Arp of the Zurich Dada circle, and continuing through to 21st century efforts to create community and celebrate the politics of identity by such artists as Ann Hamilton, Liz Collins, and Jeffrey Gibson. The exhibition will travel next to the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, from November 8, 2024–March 2, 2025 and then the Museum of Modern Art, New York, April 20–September 13, 2025. 

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In our Art: Out and About columns we often recommend that people visit exhibitions in the US and abroad.  Last week, we took our own advice and took an art break, unusual for us to do just weeks before one of exhibitions, and flew to Chicago, Illinois for an overnight stay.

The occasion was a chance to attend an artist talk at the Art Institute of Chicago by Venezuelan artists Eduardo Portillo and María Dávila, Weaving a World, to catch up with Eduardo and María, and see Threaded Visions: Contemporary Weavings from the Collection (through August 26, 2024)at the Institute in person. The couple has worked together since 1983. They are, as the Institute notes, “dedicated, almost obsessively so, to exploring the intricacies of the material production of textiles” and they have traveled extensively in China and India to study the traditional techniques of indigo dye making, sericulture, and handweaving. Through their extensive travels they have found that fiber is an ideal vehicle for understanding other cultures, the world around them, and even the cosmos. 

In their lecture, Eduardo and María spoke about the ways in which they have endeavored to translate the topographical features of Venezuela, the rhythms of day and night, and cosmology into their weavings. White Dwarf, which opens the Threaded Visions exhibition, is an example. A white dwarf is what stars like the Sun become after they have exhausted their nuclear fuel. Near the end of its nuclear burning stage, this type of star expels most of its outer material, creating a luminous planetary nebula. White Dwarf, conveys this luminosity.

Thoughtfully curated by Christa C. Mayer Thurman curator, Melinda Watt, walking through the Threaded Visions exhibition was like a homecoming for us, the exhibit contains so many fine works by artists who are among our favorites. Among them, we found a truly exceptional Olga de Amaral that Watt had seen in the artist’s retrospective and acquired. The James Bassler work that is featured on exhibition promotional materials, A Weaving, is a four-selvaged work, a wedge weave, based on a blow-up from Kinko’s of a 5” x 8” weaving that Bassler made using thread spun from Trader Joe’s brown paper bags. We were also delighted to see two works by Ethel Stein that we had shown at browngrotta and very striking examples of work by Peter Collingwood and Lia Cook.

There were some surprises in Threaded Visions, too. Color Intersection M-II by Shigeo Kubota is a gem and we loved ABC Drawn Quilt by Cynthia Schira. 

Chicago is a special place — an excellent choice even for a whirlwind stay. The train from the airport is cheap and quick. Getting around once you are in the city is easy. There are a profusion of options for great food, art, and accommodations — at all price ranges. 

We had time to experience the grandeur of the Chicago Cultural Center, a fascinating 100+-year old building that was a public library and Civil War Memorial and Surviving the Long Wars: Transformative Threads (through December 8, 2024) on exhibit there. The “American Indian Wars” and the ongoing “Global War on Terror” are two of the longest military conflicts in US history. These long wars are intertwined through similar military strategies that often profile, target, and devastate Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities while recruiting and enlisting people from these same groups. This tension is visible in the creative responses to these long wars by artists. Appropriate that the Grand Hall, which was built to honor the sacrifices of Union soldiers and their families, would host a reflection by artists impacted by other conflicts. The artworks in the exhibition draw from the artists’ respective creative traditions to repurpose military technology as a means of cultural resistance. The artists included are Dorothy I. Burge, a US military family member, Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), a US Marine Corps, Army, and Navy veteran, Mahwish Chishty (Pakistani-born American), and Melissa Doud (Ojibwe) a US Army veteran.

Given more time we could have also visited Art Expo, the newish-American Writers Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Museum of Mexican Art, the Richard H. Driehaus Museum and much more. Just another excuse to visit again.

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We had a chance to visit the newly expanded Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT last month. The art galleries are well sized and provided intimate views of several interesting exhibitions. We were initially taken by the intricate Plexus installation by Gabriel Dawe, in which thousands of multicolored sewing threads are harnessed to create the full color spectrum of light. Each of the artist’s installations is meticulously constructed: individual strands of thread are interwoven through a series of hooks to create a unified network—or plexus. 

There are several exhibitions installed at the Museum which run through September or October including Material Matters: The Sculpture of Elie Nadelman (through September 24, 2023); The William L. Richter Collection (through April 21, 2024) and; Collection Installation: Connecticut Impressionism (through June 30, 2024). 

We most appreciated the dynamic Collection Installation: American Modernism (through October 15, 2023) and the eye-opening Then Is Now: Contemporary Black Art in America (through October 15, 2023).

American Modernism showcases varying artistic approaches including those of Alexander Calder, Suzy Frelinghuysen, George L.K. Morris, Theodore Roszak, Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth. The exhibition tells a broader story about the development of abstraction in the United States in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, concurrent trends in figuration and themes pertaining to the alienation of modern life.

A selection of exciting works, made between 1968 and 2021, comprises Then Is Now: Contemporary Black Art in America. The exhibition explores how black artists of our time critically engage with the past and present. Betye Saar’s The Weight of Color (2007), for example, grapples with the complex relationship between racial violence and visual and material culture. In the multi-media sculpture, each element — a rusted antique scale, a stuffed crow awkwardly placed in a cage too small for its body, and a mammy figure — is a metaphor. The crow references Jim Crow laws that enforced racial hierarchy in the US South during the early 20th century, while the mammy figurine is an example of racist memorabilia envisioning African Americans content in their subservient societal roles. Here, the Museum label notes, “the artist’s totemic assemblage considers not only the burdensome weight of racism but also its refusal to be contained.”

In The Gypsy Fortune-Teller (2007), Kehinde Wiley (American b. 1977) upends tradition, by rendering contemporary in a formal tapestry.

The Museum’s labels state that, “Wiley is perhaps best known for reimagining Old Master portraits by replacing their original European subjects with images or contemporary people of color. Wiley based this work on a tapestry by Francois Boucher, one of a series depicting aristocratic subjects posed in idyllic, pastoral environments. Wiley updates Boucher’s version to include five black men, a radical gesture that that interrogates both representations of black masculinity and the exclusion of black figures from art history … These works exemplify an ongoing effort among artists to encourage a more expansive and inclusive artist art history.”

The Museum has a cafe and a store, too. It’s well worth a visit! 

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When our in-person exhibition of Japandí: shared aesthetics and influences closed earlier this month, we headed out to enjoy some art-related activities in our neck of the words. First stop, the new Norwalk Art Space. The vision of the late-Alexandra Davern Korry, a trailblazing M &A lawyer, educator, civil rights advocate, and philanthropist. Korry wanted to create a space that would serve as a free hub for the arts, promoting under-represented local artists, enhancing educational opportunities for under-served students, and providing the public a welcoming space to enjoy art and music.  The former church has been transformed into an attractive and light-filled gallery and features the exceptional Art Space Cafe which provides foods from local vendors like Hoodoo Brown Barbecue, Darien Cheese Shop and Cloudy Lane Bakery. We enjoyed the work of Robert Cottingham on exhibit through October 21st, and look forward to seeing what’s next.

Next stop: Grace Farms in New Canaan which was established with the idea that space communicates and can inspire people to collaborate for good. To realize this vision, Grace Farms Foundation set out to create a multipurpose building nestled into the existing habitat that would enable visitors to experience nature, encounter the arts, pursue justice, foster community, and explore faith. Approximately 77 of the 80 acres are being preserved in perpetuity as open meadows, woods, wetlands, and ponds. The architect SANAA’s goal was to make the sensuous River building become part of the landscape without drawing attention to itself. 

We enjoyed the architecture and the artwork, particularly Temporal Shift by Alyson Shotz, a site-responsive sculpture that reacts with natural light, but nature is the big star here. The walking paths are expansive— rocks, ponds and cattails. The property can accommodate large crowds — in many spots, we felt as if we had the paths to ourselves.

We also took in an opening at the The Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield. We went, in particular, to see Karla Knight: Navigator. Knight has spent the last 40 years creating an impressive body of work that spans painting, drawing and photography, including a body of work she calls, “tapestries” which include reclaimed cotton cut from circa 1940s–50s seed and grain bags purchased on eBay. We wound up, however, most impressed by Hugo McCloud: from where I stand, curated by Richard Klein. McCloud’s career, says the museum, has been defined by “restless experimentation, an ongoing engagement with process, an exploration of the value of labor, a concern with disparities in social and racial economics, and with the nature of beauty.” He has integrated roofing metal, tar, and most recently single-use plastic shopping bags into his canvases in truly fascinating ways.

Also on view at the museum is Tim Prentice: After the Mobile | Outdoor Installation and a painter, Elise Tarver, whose exuberantly colorful works we liked a lot.Adrienne Elise Tarver: The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth.

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1)Tim Prentice: After the Mobile
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT 06877
Tel 203.438.4519
6.2 Miles

https://thealdrich.org/exhibitions/tim

After the Mobile is a two-part solo exhibition by artist Tim Prentice (b. 1930), known for his innovative work in the field of motion in sculpture. Prentice has been a resident of Connecticut since 1975, and After the Mobile marks his first solo museum exhibition since 1999. The exhibition will feature 20 indoor works, five outdoor works, and a video portrait of the artist. The indoor exhibition is on view through October 4, 2021; the outdoor installation on view from September 19, 2021 to April 24, 2022. Interesting note: The title of the exhibition refers to Alexander Calder, a former Connecticut resident who in the 1930s adopted the term mobile at the urging of Marcel Duchamp to describe his balanced, moving wind-driven constructions. 

2) Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects
Fairfield University Art Museum
Walsh Gallery
September 18 – December 18, 2021
Fairfield University Art Museum
1073 North Benson Road
Fairfield, CT 06824
203.254.4046
15.2 miles

https://www.fairfield.edu/museum/exhibitions/current-exhbitions/index.html

In Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects, Weems focuses on the humanity denied in recent killings of black men, women, and children by police. She directs our attention to the constructed nature of racial identity—specifically, representations that associate black bodies with criminality. Our imaginings have real—often deadly—outcomes. Blocks of color obscure faces just as our assumptions around race obscure individual humanity. Through a formal language of blurred images, color blocks, stated facts, and meditative narration, Weems directs our attention toward the repeated pattern of judicial inaction—the repeated denials and the repeated lack of acknowledgement.

3) Between the Ground and the Sky

Westport MoCA
Through October 17, 2021
19 Newtown Turnpike
Westport, CT 06880
Monday & Tuesday | Gallery Closed
Wednesday-Sunday | 12PM-4PM
Ph: 203.222.7070
(6.6 miles)

Between the Ground and the Sky through October 17, 2021 features photography from the Who Grows Your Food initiative, an intimate photographic journey celebrating the beloved farms and farmers associated with the Westport Farmers’ Market. The centerpiece of the exhibition is more than 50 large-scale photographs, both color and black and white, of local farms by Anne Burmeister and Ashley Skatoff, two local accomplished photographers. The photographs tell a compelling and visually arresting story of the importance of local farms and farmers.

4) On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale
Yale University Art Gallery
September 10, 2021–January 9, 2022
1111 Chapel Street (at York Street) 
New Haven, Connecticut
203.432.0601
(35.2 miles)

https://artgallery.yale.edu/exhibitions/exhibition/basis-art-150-years-women-yale

On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale showcases and celebrates the remarkable achievements of an impressive roster of women artists who have graduated from Yale University. Presented on the occasion of two major milestones—the 50th anniversary of coeducation at Yale College and the 150th anniversary of the first women students at the University, who came to study at the Yale School of the Fine Arts when it opened in 1869—the exhibition features works drawn entirely from the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery that span a variety of media, such as paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography, and video. 

Enjoy your trip ! We look forward to seeing you at Japandi.

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browngrotta arts is devasted by the loss of Sandra Grotta, our extraordinary collector and patron and mother and grandmother. Sandy and her husband Lou have been pivotal in the growth of browngrotta arts through their advice and unerring support. Sandy graduated from the University of Michigan and the New York School of Interior Design. For four decades, she provided interior design assistance to dozens of clients — many through more than one home and office. She encouraged them to live with craft art, as she and Lou had done, placing works by Toshiko Takezu, Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, Helena Hernmarck, Gyöngy Laky, Markku Kosonen, Mary Merkel-Hess and many other artists in her clients’ homes. Among her greatest design talents was persuading people to de-accession pieces they had inherited, but never loved, to make way for art and furnishings that provided them joy. Sandy was a uniquely confident collector and she shared that conviction with her clients.  

Her own collecting journey began in the late 1950s, when she and Lou first stepped into the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York City after a visit to the Museum of Modern Art. “The Museum’s exhibitions, many of whose objects were for sale in its store, caused a case of love at first sight. It quickly became a founding source of many craft purchases to follow,” Sandy told Patricia Malarcher in 1982 (“Crafts,” The New York Times, Patricia Malarcher, October 24, 1982). It was a walnut table ”with heart” on view at MoCC that would irrevocably alter the collectors’ approach. The table was by Joyce and Edgar Anderson, also from New Jersey. The Grottas sought the artists out and commissioned the first of many works commissioned and acquired throughout the artists’ lifetimes, including a roll-top desk, maple server and a sofa-and-table unit that now live in browngrotta arts’ gallery space. She followed the advice she would give to others:  “When we saw the Andersons’ woodwork,” Sandy remembered, “we knew everything else had to go,” Sandy told Glenn Adamson. From the success of that first commission, the Grottas’ art exploration path was set. The Andersons introduced the Grottas to their friends, ceramists Toshiko Takaezu and William Wyman. “The Andersons were our bridge to other major makers in what we believe to have been the golden age of contemporary craft,” Sandy said, “and the impetus to my becoming our decorator.”  

When Objects USA: the Johnson Wax Collection, opened in New York in 1972 at MoCC, by then renamed the American Craft Museum, the Grottas began discovering work further afield. ”Objects USA was my Bible,” Sandy told Malarcher describing how she would search out artists, ceramists, woodworkers and jewelers. A trip to Ariel, Washington, led the Grottas to commission an eight-foot-tall Kwakiutl totem pole for the front hall by Chief Don Lelooska. Sandy ordered a bracelet by Charles Loloma from a picture in a magazine. ”I always got a little nervous when the packages came, but I’ve never been disappointed,” Sandy told Malarcher. ”Craftsmen are a special breed.” Toshiko Takaezu, as an example, would require interested collectors like the Grottas to come by her studio in Princeton, NJ, a few times first to “interview” before she’d permit them to acquire special works. It took 15 years and several studio visits each year for the Grottas to convince the artist to part with the “moon pot” that anchors their formidable Takaezu collection. Jewelers Wendy Ramshaw and David Watkins in the UK also became dear friends as Sandy developed a world-class jewelry collection. At one point, in a relationship that included weekly transatlantic calls, Sandy told Wendy she needed “everyday earrings.” Wendy responded with earrings for every day – seven pairs in fact. “For me, the surprise was that they found me,” says John McQueen. “I lived in Western New York state far from the hubbub of the art world.” McQueen says that he discovered they the Grotta’s were completely open to any new aesthetic experience. “from that moment, we established a strong connection, that has led to a rapport that has continued through the years – a close personal and professional relationship.”

Their accumulation of objects has grown to include more that 300 works of art and pieces of jewelry by dozens of artists, and with their Richard Meier home, has been the subject of two books. The most recent, The Grotta Home by Richard Meier: A Marriage of Architecture and Craft, was photographed and designed by Tom Grotta of bga. They don’t consider themselves collectors in the traditional sense, content to exhibit art on just walls and surfaces. Sandy and Lou’s efforts were aimed at creating a home. They filled every aspect of their lives with handcrafted objects from silver- and tableware to teapots to clothing to studio jewelry and commissioned pillows, throws and canes, a direction she also recommended for her interior design clients. The result, writes Glenn Adamson in The Grotta Home,”is a home that is at once totally livable and deeply aesthetic.” Among the additional artists whose work the Grottas acquired for their home were wood worker Thomas Hucker, textile and fiber artists Sheila Hicks, Lenore Tawney and Norma Minkowitz, ceramists Peter Voulkos, Ken Ferguson and William Wyman and jewelers Gijs Bakker, Giampaolo Babetto, Axel Russmeyer and Eva Eisler. They have traveled to Japan, the UK, Czechoslovakia, Germany and across the US to view art and architecture and meet with artists.

Perhaps their most ambitious commission was the Grotta House, by Richard Meier. Designed to house and highlight craft and completed in 1989, it is a source of constant delight for the couple, with its shifting light, showcased views of woodlands and wildlife and engaging spaces for object installation. The Grottas were far more collaborative clients than is typical for Meier. “From our very first discussions,” Meier has written,”it was clear that their vast collection of craft objects and Sandy’s extensive experience as an interior designer would be an important in the design of the house.“ The sensitivity with which the collection was integrated into Meier’s design produced “an enduring harmony between an ever-changing set of objects and they space they occupy.” The unique synergy between objects and architecture is evident decades later, even as the collection has evolved.  Despite his “distinct — and ornament-free — visual language, Meier created a building that lets decorative objects take a leading role on the architectural stage,” notes Osman Can Yerebakan in Introspective magazine (“Tour a Richard Meier–Designed House That Celebrates American Craft,” Osman Can Yerebakan, Introspective, February 23, 2020). The house project had an unexpected benefit — a professional partnership between Sandy and Grotta House project manager, David Ling, that would result in memorable art exhibition and living spaces designed for the homes and offices of many of Sandy’s design clients.

Sandy and Lou became patrons of the American Craft Museum in 1970s. As a member of the Associates committee she organized several annual fundraisers for the Museum, including Art for the Table, E.A.T. at McDonald’s and Art to Wear, sometimes with her close friend, Jack Lenor Larsen, another assured acquirer, as co-chair. At the openings, she would sport an artist-made piece of jewelry or clothing, sometimes both, and often it was an item that arrived or was finished literally hours before the event. “I wear all my jewelry,” she told Metalsmith Magazine in 1991 (Donald Freundlich and Judith Miller, “The State of Metalsmithing and Jewelry,” Metalsmith Magazine, Fall 1991) “I love to go to a party where everyone is wearing pearls and show up in a wild necklace …. I have a house brooch by Künzli – a big red house that you wear on your shoulder. I can go to a party in a wild paper necklace and feel as good about it as someone else does in diamonds.” Sandy served on the Board of the by-then-renamed Museum of Arts and Design, stepping down in 2019. 

From its inception, Sandy served as a trusted advisor, cheerleader and cherished client to browngrotta arts. She introduced us to artists, to her design clients and Museum colleagues. Questions of aesthetic judgment — are there too many works in this display? too much color? does this work feel unfinished? imitative? decorative? — were presented to her for review. (She was unerring on etiquette disputes, too.) The debt we owe her is enormous; the void she leaves is large indeed. We can only say thank you, we love you and your gifts will live on.

You can learn more about Sandy’s life and legacy on The Grotta House website: https://grottahouse.com and in the book, The Grotta Home by Richard Meier: A Marriage of Architecture and Craft available from browngrotta at: https://store.browngrotta.com/the-grotta-home-by-richard-meier-a-marriage-of-architecture-and-craft/.

The family appreciates memorial contributions to the Sandra and Louis Grotta Foundation, Inc., online at https://joingenerous.com/louis-and-sandra-grotta-foundation-inc-r5yelcd or by mail to The Louis and Sandra Grotta Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 766, New Vernon, NJ 07976-0000.

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Heidrun Schimmel

Seven works by Heidrun Schimmel have been acquired since 2020. Two by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden, two by Museum of Applied Art, Frankfurt and three by the Diocesan Musuem in Bamberg.

Kyoko Kumai

One work by Kyoko Kumai was acquired by the Angers Museums in Angers, France (Jean-Lurçat and the Museum of Contemporary Tapestry) and another by the Janina Monkute-Marks Art Museum in Kedainai, Lithuania.

Carolina Yrarrázaval

Two tapestries were selected on May of this year at Yrarrázaval’s exhibition in Kyoto by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Kyoto.

Åse Ljones

Åse Ljones‘ work, Atterskin, was purchased by Nordenfjeldske Art and Craft Museum in Trondheim , Norway in 2020 and Mylder was purchased The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, March 2021. 

Federica Luzzi

An encased textile, Shell-Omaggio a Costanino Dardi, by Federica Luzzi was acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Salerno, Italy for a collection curated by Fondazione Filiberto e Bianca Menna – Centro Studi D’Arte Contemporanea.

The textile object is suspended and anchored with nylon thread in a plexiglass box. Like a seed, with an aerodynamic shape that is structured for long movements and transport, it is closed in a box that prevents its natural and complete movement, it is trapped in it. “This work was done just before the outbreak of the pandemic,” Luzzi says. “So without knowing what would happen, but continuing my research on envelopes, I visualized even better the containment condition of a body.”

Simone Pheulpin

Two artworks by Simone Pheulpin have been acquired by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs i(MAD) inn Paris in December 2019: Jéromine, Série Eclipse (2019); Eclosion Epingles (2019). Another, Détail VII (2021), will be acquired by the same museum in 2021. The acquisitions were organized by the Galerie Maison Parisienne in Paris.

Wlodzimierz Cygan

In 2021, Organic (2018) by Wlodzimierz Cygan was acquired by the Musée de la Tapisserie et des Arts Textiles de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (TAMAT) in Tournai, Belgium.

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Polly Adams Sutton

Polly Adams Sutton’s work Facing the Unexpected has been acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Musuem. It’s going to be part of the Renwick’s 50th anniversary exhibition in 2022.

Norma Minkowitz

Goodbye My Friend by Norma Minkowitz was gifted to the Renwick, Smithsonian American Art Museum, in memory of noted fiber art collector, Camille Cook.

Kiyomi Iwata 

Two works, Red Aperture and Fungus Three by Kiyomi Iwata were acquired by The Warehouse, MKE in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Two works by Iwata, Grey Orchid Fold V made in 1988, and Auric Grid Fold made in 1995 were donated to the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Adela Akers

Adela Akers‘ work, Traced Memories from 2007 was acquired by the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, California in 2020.

Dawn MacNutt  

Dawn MacNutt’s 9 foot-high willow sculpture, Larger Than Life, was acquired by Longhouse Reserve in East Hampton, New York in 2021.

Naoko Serino

Two works by Naoko Serino, Generating Mutsuki and Existing 2-D, were acquired by The Warehouse, MKE in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Ferne Jacobs

A work by Ferne Jacobs, Slipper, made in 1994, was donated to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Another, Centric Spaces, from 2000, was donated to Houston Museum of Fine Art.

Lia Cook

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) purchased Presence Absence Tunnel Four, 1990, by Lia Cook, in 2019.

Gyöngy Laky   

The Oakland Museum of California in California acquired Noise at Noon by Gyöngy Laky this year. In 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Historical Society, added That Word to its collection and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California, added Ex Claim!  The Art in Embassies program of the US Department of State, acquired Seek, for the US embassy in Pristina, Kosovo.

Congratulations to the artists and acquiring organizations!

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Frank Stella’s Stars, A Survey
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT 06877
Tel 203.438.4519

Just up the street from browngrotta arts, at the Aldrich Museum is the highly acclaimed exhibition, Frank Stella’s Stars, A Survey. https://thealdrich.org/exhibitions/frank-stellas-stars-a-survey#frank-stellas-stars-a-survey-0 Much of the exhibition is outdoors — where you can go mask free if you are vaccinated!

They are open from 12-5 all days but Sunday. From 10 am on Saturday. You’ll need an appointment: https://thealdrich.org/visit
258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877

The Glass House
New Canaan, CT

Philip Johnson’s glorious Glass House and grounds in New Canaan are open.You’ll need to book a tour. For information on visiting go to the website: https://theglasshouse.org.

Remembering Dave Brubeck
Wilton Historical Society & Museum
224 Danbury Road (Route 7)
Wilton, CT 06897
203-762-7257

Our Wilton Historical Society & Museum, of which we are great admirers, is open to the public. The premier exhibition explores the life of longtime resident Dave Brubeck and his family. The Society also features several permanent galleries that feature tools and toys and furniture – all worth a look. More information on scheduling a visit here: http://wiltonhistorical.org/visit/

Let in, Let go
Bruce Museum
1 Museum Drive
Greenwich, CT 06830-7157
Phone: 203.869.0376

The Bruce Museum in Greenwich hosts, Let in, Let go,  a multi-sensory video projection installation created by Holly Danger, a video artist based in Stamford, CT, who has brought experiential events and immersive installations to audiences around the world. Danger mixes analog and digital layers to create vibrant audiovisual collages, and projection maps the work into site-specific installations. Schedule your visit, here: https://brucemuseum.org/site/exhibitions_detail/let-in-let-go

Marilyn Minter: Smash
Westport Museum of Contemporary Art
19 Newtown Turnpike
Westport, CT 06880

MoCA’s current exhibition, Smash, is devoted exclusively to the videos of contemporary artist Marilyn Minter. Seeped in lush imagery oscillating between figuration and abstraction, Minter’s works encapsulate feminism, pleasure, voyeurism and notions of beauty, desire and chance. Minter is a contemporary American painter, photographer and video artist recognized for examining the relationships between the body and cultural beliefs about sexuality, desire, and pleasure. More information here:  https://mocawestport.org/exhibition/smash/

Adaptation: Artists Respond to Change
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road Wilton, CT 06897
203.834.0623
Make an appointment here:

Looking forward to seeing you next month!

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Happily, vaccines are on the rise and art openings are, too.

We are excited about our own opening, Adaptation: Artists Respond to Change, May 8 – 16. You can join us by making an appointment through Eventbrite:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/adaptation-artists-respond-to-change-tickets-148974728423  Elsewhere, exhibitions are ongoing live coast to coast this Spring. Check some or all of these events in person, or online. Art makes a comeback!

Uncommon Threads: The Works of Ruth E. Carter
New Bedford Art Museum/ArtWorks! (NBAM)
Massachusetts

May 1 – November 14, 2021

A solo exhibition celebrating Massachusetts-born Ruth E. Carter’s 30-year career as an Academy Award-winning (Black Panther, 2018) costume designer rn Ruth E. Carter’s 30-year career as an Academy Award-winning (Black Panther, 2018) costume designer. 

For more info: https://newbedfordart.org/ruth/

Sonya Clark: Tatter, Bristle, and Mend
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Washington, DC 
Through June 27, 2021

This first survey of Clark’s 25-year career includes 100 sculptures made from black pocket combs, human hair and thread as well as works created from flags, currency, beads, cotton plants, pencils, books, a typewriter and a hair salon chair. The artist transmutes each of these everyday objects through her application of a vast range of fiber-art techniques: Clark weaves, stitches, folds, braids, dyes, pulls, twists, presses, snips or ties within each object. 

View in-person or online https://nmwa.org/exhibitions/sonya-clark-tatter-bristle-and-mend/

Craft Front and Center
The Museum of Arts and Design 
New York, NY

May 22, 2021–Feb 13, 2022

MAD’s collection comprises over 3,000 artworks in clay, fiber, glass, metal, and wood, dating from the post-war studio craft movement through to contemporary art and design. Craft Front & Center is organized into eight themes exploring craft’s impact. Each section is punctuated with pivotal and rarely seen works from iconic makers, such as Betty Woodman, Marvin Lipofsky, Lia Cook and Magdalena Abakanowicz. The exhibition also casts a fresh eye on craft’s pioneers; celebrating Olga de Amaral, Charles Loloma, Ed Rossbach, Kay Sekimachi, Katherine Westphal and others who pushed the boundaries of materials and sought more inclusive sources of inspiration. The exhibition affirms craft as one of the most exciting spaces for experimentation and wonder in art today.

Building Bridges: Breaking Barriers

Ruth’s Table
San Francisco, CA
Virtual Exhibition through May 13, 2021

Artist Talk April 15 at 4:30 pm (PST)

See the Exhibit 

RSVP for the Artist Talk on April 15th

If you are not near an exhibition with in-person viewing, you can visit this two-part exhibition series online. Building Bridges: Breaking Barriers aims to help break barriers in perception by recognizing the unique agility and skill possessed by professional older artists at the pinnacle of their careers, their continued value and contribution to the arts and society, leading us to building bridges of an intergenerational nature. The exhibition, which includes work by Lia Cook, highlights artists who are particularly notable for their ability to transform their oeuvre in the thick of their careers. Each artist displays a selection of works that represent evolution and, sometimes, rupture from earlier works, demonstrating a compelling ability to take risks, break new ground and shape attitudes through their artistic practice.

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