Lives Well-Lived: John McQueen

John McQueen Harvesting Willow
John McQueen harvesting willow. Photo by Tom Grotta

We were deeply saddened to learn of the death of John McQueen last week. He was a remarkable artist. We had long admired his work from afar and over the years had placed several works that he showed at other galleries. We got to know him personally when he began to exhibit with browngrotta arts more than 15 years ago. He visited us in Wilton on several occasions and we traveled to upstate New York to see him and photograph him at work.

Happenstance, John McQueen
Detail: 82jm Happenstance, John McQueen, willow, waxes string,22.5″ x 8.5″ x 8.75″, 2011. Photo by Tom Grotta

McQueen created three-dimensional items of twigs, branches, bark, and sometimes plastic and cardboard, all of material he harvested and collected. These objects included books, fish, birds, lions, and human figures, and vessels and structures, some basket like, others not.  McQueen insisted that he was not a sculptor, but a basketmaker. Containment was a consistent interest. “Baskets connect with the definition of a container — a very broad concept. This room is a container. I am a container. The earth is being contained by its atmosphere. This is so open. I don’t need to worry about reaching the end of it.” (Quoted on the relationship in the catalog for his solo exhibition at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Language of Containment, in 1992).

Untitled #88, John McQueen
64jm Untitled #88, John McQueen, elm bark and maple, 14” x 14” x 10.5”, 1979. Photo by Tom Grotta

McQueen pushed the boundaries of his art form of choice throughout his working life. He created forms of pieced bark, using forms made of cardboard, “paintings” of plastic contained within frames of twigs and branches, and integrated sly and subtle messages throughout his works. Words entered his works in 1979 in Untitled #88, in which a web of words creates the container in part and conveys an idea — “Always is always a ways away.” His subsequent works abounded with puns, rebuses, and messages to be deciphered.

Falling Fruit, John McQueen
20jm Falling Fruit, John McQueen, sticks and string on a wood grid, 40” x 48” x 12”, 2014. Photo by Tom Grotta

Man’s fruitless efforts to control nature were a frequent subject of McQueen’s art. As Vicki Halper observed in The Language of Containment, for McQueen “[t]he basket becomes an agent for investigating the fragile truce between humans and nature.” In Falling Fruit, for example, tiny stick figures are mounted beside sharks and palm trees made of twigs.  We may think we can control our world, but McQueen’s camouflage-like scene suggests otherwise. As Nature does, McQueen offers surprising combinations that remind us that life is not predictable. 

1000 Leaves, John McQueen
49jm 1000 Leaves, John McQueen, willow, waxed linen, 27″ x 48″ x 48″, 2022. Photo by Tom Grotta

In 2022, McQueen decided to take on a project that would take him a year. This was an approach regularly taken by his life partner, artist Margo Mensing, who would choose a subject — generally a person — and spend a year creating artworks, poetry, performances, and multi-media installations in response. For McQueen, the result of his year’s work was 1000 Leaves, an assemblage of individually crafted structures that paid homage to trees, the source of the material that gave life to his work.

A Tree and Its Skin Again, John McQueen
78jm A Tree and Its Skin Again, John McQueen, mixed media, 30″ x 20.25″ x 8.25″, 2006. Photo by Tom Grotta

McQueen was born in Oakland, Illinois in 1943. He received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida (where Jim Morrison was his roommate). After college he went to New Mexico where his interest in basketmaking began. Courses in weaving were a logical entry point to basketry so he enrolled in the Master’s program at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, where he studied with Adela Akers among others. He received many awards in his career including an artist fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Visual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, a United States/Japan Friendship Commission Fellowship, a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Award, the Master of the Medium Award from the James Renwick Alliance, and the Gold Medal from the American Craft Council. His work is found in numerous permanent collections, including that of the Museum of Arts and Design, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, Norway, Detroit Institute of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Not Believable, John McQueen
59jm Not Believable, John McQueen, woven willow, plastic, 20.25″ x 41″ x 5″, 2005. Photo by Tom Grotta

McQueen’s art stirs powerful feelings in viewers, forcing them to think about construction and words, metaphysically and literally.  “McQueen’s genius lies in finding a simple declarative means of speaking about paradox, essences, and fundamental truth,” Elizabeth Broun, then-director of the National Museum of American Art observed. His genius will be greatly missed.


Art Assembled: Highlights from July

Last month we highlighted a series of engaging works by artists from across the globe — Latvia, America, the Netherlands, and Japan.

February 2025 II, Lija Rage
9lr February 2025 II, Lija Rage, painted wooden sticks, wire, glue and fabric
23.5” x 23.5”, 2025. Photo by Tom Grotta

First up was February 2025 II, by the late Lija Rage (LV). “I create my fiber works by painting little sticks and wrapping them in copper wire, by gluing and sowing, putting layer upon layer until the work seems finished,” Rage once explained.  “Textile and fiber art are modern arts. I believe that modern world culture cannot be closed. Each of us grows up from the culture we live in, through centuries, which further on is subjected to other impacts and becomes interwoven with the world culture influences.” Rage aimed to create “a mystique where each thread, metal shard, or sliver of wood discovers its unique place, contributing to an emotionally charged entirety.” 

206L Heartwood, Gyöngy Laky, ash branches, acrylic paint, screws, 48″ x 48″ x 3″, 2025.  Photo by Tom Grotta

Heartwood by Gyöngy Laky (US) was next. Laky explained the origins of the work and its name: “In 2005, I paused in awe before a majestic Ash Tree in front of Customwood Furniture in San Francisco—founded in 1946 by the renowned designer Arthur Hanna. I met Arthur and a delightful friendship ensued. Whenever the Ash was pruned, his trimmer would deliver a great pile of beautiful Ash cuttings. The Tree is still there though Arthur is not. While working with Ash on a recent piece, I found myself continually sensing the nodes and branches as suggestive of human anatomy. One day, my friend and neighbor, architect Teri Behm, walked into my studio and anticipated my title, Heartwood, when she remarked, “Those pieces look like parts of a heart.”

Floating Upstream, Marianne Kemp
13mke Floating Upstream, Marianne Kemp, cotton, horsehair, wood, 47.25” x 55” x 4”, 2023. Photo by Tom Grotta

In Floating Upstream, Marianne Kemp (NL) explores how horizontal and vertical reference lines fade into the background, when coupled with random knotting of horsehair, which shifts the viewer’s focus. The interplay of overlapping textures and translucency is key to softening the otherwise bold composition. The single, straight, horizontal line, formed by the wooden dowel, brings balance to the piece. Kemp’s work is deeply influenced by her travels. Her explorations across Europe, and to places such as Mexico, Japan, Africa, and Mongolia, have further enriched her artistic vocabulary. 

Rooted 4, Naoko Serino
27ns Rooted 4, Naoko Serino, jute, 5.5″ x 8″ x 8″, 2025. Photo by Tom Grotta

Last but not at all least, we focused on Naoko Serino’s Rooted 4. “I have been creating artworks using only jute for 28 years,” Serino (JP) says. She is grateful to be able to convey the charm of jute, which she does in three-dimensional expressions that incorporate light and air. “Life and nature are constantly changing, and every moment holds its own significance. An invisible force stimulates me, and the memories it awakens inspire my artworks. I pour my feelings into my artworks, allowing them to speak through the material.”

Enjoy the recap!


Gone Fishing!

John McQueen willow billfish
John McQueen, Just Under the Record, willow sticks and waxed string, 30″ x 72″ x 12″, 1998. Photo by Tom Grotta

We are off to spend some of August in Maine. 

Judy Mulford Fish gord
Judy Mulford, A Day at the Beach, mixed media, 6″ x 9.5″ x 9.5″, 1997. Photo by Tom Grotta

We are using this week’s arttextstyle to share some images of art that reflects some of our favorite things about the place.

Ed Rossbachs Fish Trap basket
Ed Rossbach, Fish Trap, 14″ x 11″ x 11″, 1988. Photo by Tom Grotta

Fish would be one. Watching, catching, and eating them.

Chris Drury Kayaks
Chris Drury, Kayak Bundles, willow bark and cloth sea charts from Greenland and Outer Hebrides, 79″ x 55″ x 12″, 1994. Photo by Tom Grotta

Water travel is another. We love to watch boats and kayak.

Carol Shaw-Sutton willow Canoe
Carol Shaw-Sutton, Spirit Canoe, willow construction with waxed linen, 56″ x 60″ x 28″, 1999. Photo by Tom Grotta

We love to watch boats and kayak.

Bamboo boat by Dona Anderson
Dona Anderson, Crossing Over, bamboo kendo (martial art sticks), patterened paper, thread, 15″ x 94″ x 30″, 2008. Photo by tom grotta

We’ll be back next week with Art Assembled.

Annette Bellamy floating boats
Annette Bellamy Floating Installation, Fuller Craft Museum Installation. Photo by Tom Grotta

Happy Summer!!


Art Out and About

This year continues to deliver when it comes to exciting and immersive exhibitions of fiber art. Artists that work with browngrotta arts are included in exhibitions in Montana, Boston, Trondberg, Norway, and San Diego, California. Elsewhere are monumental tapestries and imaginative presentations from Berkeley, California to Tilburg, the Netherlands, to Miami, Florida to North Jyland, Denmark and parts in between.

moon landing at Canterbury Cathedral
Moon Landing at Canterbury Cathedral © Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral | Photographer: Jon Barlow

Moon Landing: an immersive textile and musical collaboration
Through August 31, 2025
Canterbury Cathedral
Cathedral House 
11 The Precincts
Canterbury, CT1 2EH
United Kingdom
https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/whats-on/events/moon-landing

This summer, the medieval splendour of Canterbury Cathedral will complement a stunning free-to-view modern art installation inspired by the little-known story of the women who wove the integrated computer circuits and memory cores which enabled the 1969 moon landing. The breathtaking installation moon landing – a duo work created by British textile artist and designer of woven textiles, Margo Selby, and award-winning composer, Helen Caddick – comprises a vibrant 16-meter hand-woven textile suspended from the ceiling near the Cathedral’s Trinity Chapel, created in response to the moon landing score, an original musical piece scored for strings. It is a celebration of the mathematical and technical possibilities of weaving and the crossovers of pattern, tone and rhythm found in both music and woven textiles.

Lia Cook Digital Weaving
Detail: Maze Gaze, Lia Cook, cotton, rayon, 72″ x 52″, 2007

Digital Weaving Norway
From August 12 – 15, 2025
Solgaard Skog 132, 1599 
Moss, Norway
https://digitalweaving.no

Lia Cook’s work will be featured in the exhibition of Digital Weaving – Innovation Through Pixels in Norway — a conference and exhibition celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the TC-Looms with Digital Weaving Norway (August 12–15). 

American Flag
Photo supplied by Museum of the American Revolution

Banners of History: An Exhibition of Original Revolutionary War Flags
Through August 10, 2025
Museum of American Revolution
101 South Third Street
Philadelphia, PA
https://www.amrevmuseum.org/exhibits/banners-of-liberty-an-exhibition-of-original-revolutionary-war-flag

A significant use of fiber throughout the world is in the creation of flags. In preparation for the 250th Anniversary of the birth of the United States, the Museum of the American Revolutionary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has mounted an expansive exhibition of flags from the early part of the Nation’s history. The exhibition, dispalyed in the Museum’s first-floor Patriots Gallery, features the largest gathering of rare and significant Revolutionary War flags in more than two centuries. This one you see online!

Christine Joy
Christine Joy. Photo by Tom Grotta

Willow Woven
Through August 6, 2025
Studio Gallery
Hennebery Eddy Architects’
109 N Rouse 
Bozeman, MT
https://downtownbozeman.org/summer-art-walks

Willow Woven, by Christine Joy, part of Bozeman, Montana’s Art Walk is on view in the window of Hennebery Eddy Architects’ Studio Gallery until August 6th, 2025.

On public display in the studio’s storefront window, the gallery is about making connections — with neighbors, friends, clients, and colleagues. The alternating exhibits at the Studio Gallery feature curated staff and visiting artist displays that spark new ideas and promote a shared sense of place.

Lee ShinJa: Image of City
Lee ShinJa: Image of City, 1961. Cotton, linen, and wool thread on cotton cloth; coiling, free technique. Courtesy of the artist and Tina Kim Gallery.

Lee ShinJa: Drawing with Thread
Through February 1, 2026
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archives (BAMPFA)
215 Center Street 
Berkeley, CA
https://bampfa.org/program/lee-shinja-drawing-thread

Lee ShinJa: Drawing with Thread at BAMPFA in Berkeley, California is the first North American survey of the captivating work of the under-recognized Korean artist Lee ShinJa (b. 1930, Uljin, South Korea; lives and works in Seoul). Lee ShinJa worked throughout the five decades of contemporary fiber arts’ history, from the 1950s to the early 2000s, the exhibition showcases the artist’s bold innovations in fiber through 40 monumental textile works, woven maquettes, and preparatory sketches. Like artists from other Eastern Europe, her artworks from the 1950s incorporate everyday objects and found materials, such as grain sacks, mosquito nets, and domestic wallpaper; notably, she used yarn salvaged from secondhand sweaters and bedding to make her earliest tapestries

Jane Balsgaard Relief
Jane Balsgaard, Relief 320 x 180 cm, for the exhibition in Vrå (Nordth Jylland). Photo courtesy of Jane Balsgaard

Kunstbygningen/Vrå Udstillingen
Museum for Contemporary Art in North-Jylland
Højskolevej 3A
9760 Vrå, Denmark
Through July 27 – August 31, 2026
https://www.kunstbygningenvraa.dk/vraa-udstillingen]

Jane Balsgaard will hang a several-part relief in an exhibition at the Vrå-Udstilligen in North Jylland, Denmark through August 31st. The opening party is July 26 at 2:00 pm. The exhibition is supported by the Danish State Art Foundation.

Liz Collins, Power Portal
Liz Collins, Power Portal, 2023–2024. Courtesy of the Artist and Candice Madey, New York. RISD Museum, Providence, RI. 

Liz Collins: Motherlode
Through January 11, 2026
RISD Museum
20 North Main Street
Providence, RI
https://risdmuseum.org/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/liz-collins

On July 19, the RISD Museum will open the first U.S. survey of artist Liz Collins’ genre-defying work. As the Museum explains, “For more than three decades, Collins has moved fluidly among the realms of fine art, fashion, and design, pushing material and technical boundaries to create works that evoke a depth of emotion, energy, and individual expression. The exhibition, titled Liz Collins: Motherlode, will feature more than 80 objects, capturing for the first time the full arc of Collins’ career from the 1980s to the present day. Motherlode includes important examples of her immersive textile installations and wallworks, intricate and monumental woven hangings, fashion, needlework, drawings, performance documentation, and ephemera. In keeping with the RISD Museum’s commitment to centering makers and broadening perspectives, the exhibition vividly showcases the trailblazing nature of Collins’ work as well as the artist’s deep commitment to illuminating Queer feminist creative practice and environmental activism.” Liz Collins: Motherlode will remain on view at RISD Museum through January 11, 2026. The exhibition is curated by Kate Irvin, RISD Museum’s department head and curator of costume and textiles.

Polly Sutton Facing the Unexpected
1ps Facing the Unexpected, Polly Adams Sutton, western red cedar bark, ash, spruce root, coated copper wire, 11.5” x 18” x 32”, 2013. Photo by Tom Grotta

State Fair: Growing American Craft
August 22 – September 7, 2026
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC
https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/state-fairs

Polly Adams Sutton‘s work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and will be featured in the Smithsonian’s upcoming exhibition, State Fair: Growing American Craft, which includes exceptional examples of American craft, highlighting personal stories and regional and cultural traditions.

Salts Mill roof We Will Sing
Installation in Salts Mill, Bradford, UK from We Will Sing. Photo by Ann Hamilton

We Will Sing
Through November 2, 2025
1A Aldermanbury
Bradford, UK
https://bradford2025.co.uk/event/we-will-sing

We Will Sing is a work of memory and imagining. Drawing on the origins of the textile processes that once filled the huge Salts Mill textile works built in 1853, a site-responsive installation by Ann Hamilton weaves together voice, song and printed word in a material surround made from raw and woven wool sourced from local textile companies H Dawson, based at Salts Mill, and William Halstead, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2025. We Will Sing is the first major work created by Hamilton in the UK for more than 30 years, and the first time all three spaces on the vast top floor of Salts Mill have been combined to present a single artwork. (We’ve been big fans of Hamilton’s immersive installations since she transformed our neighborhood museum, the Aldrich, in the 1990s.)

Laura Foster Nicholson

Human Affects
Through October 4, 2025
Visions Museum of Textile Art
2825 Dewey Road
Suite 100
San Diego, CA
https://vmota.org/human-affects

Human Affects is a one-person exhibition at the Visions Museum of Textile Art featuring work by 
Laura Foster Nicholson. From 2020-2023, Nicholson made three related bodies of work about climate change: flooding in Venice, container ships, and the landscape and architecture of industrial agriculture and energy. A selected grouping of these themes comprises the exhibition at VMOTA, plus a few that focus more on the hope of renewable energy, careful farming, and a less destructive way of life.

And continuing:

Olga de Amaral
Olga de Amaral exhibition has moved from Paris (above) to Miami. Photo by Tom Grotta

Olga de Amaral
Through October 12, 2026
Institute of Contemporary Art
61 NE 41st Street
Miami, FL
https://icamiami.org/exhibition/olga-de-amaral

ICA Miami, in collaboration with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, presents a major retrospective of the work of Colombian artist Olga de Amaral, bringing together more than 50 works from six decades, and featuring recent and historical examples, some of which have never been presented outside of her home country.

Ruth Asawa
Artist Ruth Asawa making wire sculptures, California, United States, November 1954;  image: Nat Farbman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock; artwork: © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., courtesy David Zwirner

Ruth Asawa: Retrospective
Through September 2, 2025
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
San Francisco, CA 
https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/ruth-asawa-retrospective

This first posthumous retrospective presents the full range of Ruth Asawa’s work and its inspirations over six decades of her career. As an artist, Asawa forged a groundbreaking practice through her ceaseless exploration of materials and forms.

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction
September 13, 2025
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY
https://press.moma.org/exhibition/woven-histories

Shan Goshen Baskets from the Woven Histories exhibition at the National Gallery, DC. Photo by Tom Grotta

An in-depth exhibition featuring 150 works that delves into the dynamic intersections between weaving and abstraction.

Magdalena Abakanowicz – Everything is made of fiber
Through August 23, 2025
TextielMuseum
Goirkestraat 96
5046 GN Tilburg, the Netherlands
https://textielmuseum.nl/en/exhibitions/Abakanowicz

Magdalena Abakanowicz
Detail: Montana del Fuego, Magdalena Abakanowicz, 1986. Photo by Tom Grotta

The complete story of Abakanowicz’s work, life and legacy will be told at three locations in Brabant this spring. Abakanowicz was fascinated by the texture of textiles and the structure of natural fibres. She used this fascination as a basis for her weavings, but also to depict the human body.

Almost too many to choose from — fiber art continues its time in the spotlight!


In Situ: A Look Book of Acquired Art

Below are some works that left browngrotta arts for new homes in the last few months.We are always pleased when art works we promote capture the imagination of a client or collector or someone who found us on the internet.

Mariette Rousseau-Vermette
Work by Mariette Rousseau-Vermette (Canada) in California. Client photo.
Katherine Westphal
A Katherine Westphal (US) collage in New York. Client Photo.

We then have the chance to tell them more about the remarkable artist whose work we admire.

Naomi Kobayashi
Work by Naomi Kobayashi (Japan) in Massachusetts.
Warren Seelig
A stonefield work by Warren Seelig (US), commissioned for a client in Connecticut. Photo by Tom Grotta

We share the impetus behind the work when we have that information.

Gudrun Pagter
A tapestry by Gudrun Pagter (Sweden) at home in Massachusetts.
Pat Campbell
A multi-layered paper work by Pat Campbell (US) in Connecticut. Photo by Tom Grotta

And, in an ideal world, they work is acquired and finds a new location.

Dorothy Gill Barnes
A grouping of innovative objects by Dorothy Gill Barnes (US) displayed in New York City. Client photo.
Keiji Nio
Cat’s Eyes by Keiji Nio (Japan) in Connecticut. Photo by Tom Grotta

A location where it inspires and delights.

Włodzimierz Cygan
Włodzimierz Cygan’s work in New York City. Client Photo.
Åse Ljones
An embroidery by Åse Ljones (Norway) in Connecticut. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Agneta Hobin
Fans of stainless steel mesh and mica by Agneta Hobin (Finland) in Pennsylvania. Client Photo.
Lilla Kulka
A sculptural tapestry by Lilla Kulka (Poland) in Connecticut. Photo by Tom Grotta
Baiba Osite
A work of driftwood by Baiba Osite (Latvia) in Connecticut. Photo by Tom Grotta
Caroline Bartlett
A dyed, pleated and stitched work by Caroline Bartlett(UK) installed in CT. Photo by Tom Grotta.
Works by Dorothy Gill Barnes(US) and Gyöngy Laky(US). Photo by Tom Grotta.

To find something for your location, visit our website: browngrotta.com.


Art Assembled

Hisako Sekijima wall basket
691-703hs 32 Selvages with 16 Ends, Hisako Sekijima, ramie, 15” x 17” x 1.5”, 2024. Photo by Tom Grotta

In our New this Week feature this past month, we shared works from our Spring exhibition, Field Notes: an art survey. First up was Hisako Sekijima’s 32 Selvages with 16 Ends. Always experimenting, this work resulting from Sekijima’s exploration of coarse Mexican dishcloths that were a kind of a four-selvage cloth made from one continuous thread. When she fully understood the unusual movement that made it, economizing repetition of passing a warp, she was “excited to have discovered a new rule hidden in such an ordinary-looking fabric.” She created her own weaving board with 18 rows of lines in two directions. She used a lightly processed fiber in varied sizes, peeled from ramie raised in her garden. She connected lengths each time she needed more, creating a stack of squares this way. “This very primitive weaving method reversed my pre-fixed judgments about weaving, she says, “and made me reconsider the relation of fabrication method and form of material.”

Misako Nakahira striped tapestry
2mn Towels O, Misako Nakahira, wool, ramie, 41” x 35.5” x .125”, 2022. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Misako Nakahira is an artist who exhibited with browngrotta arts for the first time in Field Notes. Her exploration of stripes began five years ago, inspired by reading Michel Pastoureau’s The Devil’s Cloth, which explores stripes in Western culture from the Middle Ages to the present. Originally, identifying individuals affected by plagues or those ostracized by society, such as prisoners and prostitutes, Pastoreau concludes that “stripes are patterns that establish order between people and space.” Nakahira uses stripes to explore social phenomena, including the “echo chamber” in which people encounter only opinions that agree with theirs, creating the illusion of intersecting orders among individuals who have never met in person. Towels O incorporates the colors yellow and orange, which, like stripes, signify “caution.” The layers created by the two-stripe patterns may appear to clash or harmonize depending on perspective, yet neither pattern dominates the other. Nakahira believes that using stripes as a motif—a universally understood and versatile form of expression—provides a way to view society from a broader perspective and interpret the times.

Red Rachel Max basket
14rm Rift, Rachel Max, plaited and twined, dyed cane,12” x 14” x 12”, 2025. Photo by Tom Grotta

“My work is heavily rooted in ideas of time and space,”says Rachel Max. “For several years I have been exploring notions and forms that symbolize infinity. The Möbius loop and figure 8, both steeped in metaphorical associations, have become my starting point. Each new piece becomes a variation on previous works, an amalgamation of different ideas set to challenge when the infinite becomes finite.” Rift explores the relationship between interior and exterior space. Edges that are almost touching suddenly split apart.The crack that emerges, interrupts the surface and casts doubt on whether this is a never-ending form.

Pat Campbell paper wall sculpture
42pc Play of Black and White, Pat Campbell, rice paper, wood, reed, 34″ x 26″ x 4″, 2019. Photo by Tom Grotta.

The fourth work for June was Play of Opposites, by Pat Campbell. Campbell’s work is influenced by the Japanese shoji screen, traditionally made of rice paper. “Paper is a natural choice of material for my work. It provides the translucency I am seeking in constructions. It also provides a thin plane of material that is easily shaped and accepts the reed, wood and paper cord that I apply to it,” Campbell says. “Paper is exciting to work with. It is a fragile material that can be easily ripped or torn.” Play of Black and White is constructed of modules that form a configuration hanging on two levels. “I usually work in all white gampi paper,” says. “I experimented here by adding black lines to the rice paper. In future work, I may continue adding color to the modules.” 

Hope you enjoy these engaging works!


In Print — Field Notes: an art survey

Field Notes Catalog Cover
Field Notes: catalog

If you weren’t able to visit browngrotta arts in person in May, there are four other ways to experience our Spring exhibition, Field Notes: an art survey, three online and one in print We’ve created a Video; Viewing Rooms; and a Zoom talkthrough, Art on the Rocks-Field Notes Edition. You can also see more images and learn more about Field Notes in the Catalog of the same name — our 60th — on our website.

Gudrun Pagter
Gudrun Pagter catalog spread

In the catalog, you’ll find more than 140 images of each of the works we “observed” in our state-of-the-art survey of the fiber medium in 2025. You’ll find detail shots and abbreviated cv information for each of the 52 artists included. 

Sung Rim  Park catalog Spread
Sung Rim Park catalog spread

You’ll also find artists’ insights on their work and comments on working in challenging times.  Polly Barton talks about her work, No Strings Attached,  which began as a small watercolor sketch — “a memory of petroglyphs — field notes from the past carved into basalt stones found while hiking paths in canyons. My sketch, like a voice from the past, beckoned to be woven as a fluid path forward into our spinning world.”  Norma Minkowitz writes about Golden Moon,  a continuation of a series of vessel forms she began in the 1990s. “These vessels represent containers of different thoughts: some dark, some optimistic and ethereal,” she writes. “Golden Moon, has a large, intricate orb rising up from the center. It is a symbol of illumination, insight, and mystery. The moon is a metaphor for beauty in this world and a source of light in the darkness” And Sung Rim Park speaks about the knots she creates of paper for her paper structures: “I determine the shape and size of each knot based on the knot based on the meanings and symbolism it holds,” she writes. “Fiber begins as a line—the most

Sophie Rowley Catalog spread
Sophie Rowley Catalog spread

basic element in art—and knots, as extensions or intersections, become points or dots. While knots and fibers may appear delicate, they have the power to shape space. The works that result may be light in physical terms, but you cannot ignore their heavy aura, or the diverse stories about mankind that they contain.”

s Bassler-Field Notes
James Bassler-Field Notes. Photo Katie Bassler

There are also a few in-process shots to round out this special exploration volume. Get your copy at browngrotta.com


10 Artists to Watch if You Like Ruth Asawa

This year has seen the opening of a magical retrospective of Ruth Asawa’s ethereal work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, through September 2, 2025. Asawa(1926 -2013) has newly captivated art audiences since 2020, when the US Postal Service created a Forever Stamp in her honor. The stamps were elegant and popular and led to considerable attention for the artist. A National Medal of Arts and numerous solo exhibitions followed, including Ruth Asawa Through Line at the Whitney Museum of American Art followed. In 2022, her biomorphic wire forms were showcased in The Milk of Dreams at the 59th Venice Biennial.

Acknowledging Asawa’s attraction, Artsy recently complied 6 Artists to Follow If You Like Ruth Asawa (Artsy, Tara Anne Dalbow, Apr 2, 2025). The list includes Chiaru Shiota, Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga, Gertrud Hals, Marci Chevali, Nnenna Okore, and Mari Andrews. Like Asawa’s, these artists’ work reflect natural forms like snail shells, insect wings, and spider webs, and is “characterized by a sense of levity that defies common perceptions of weight and gravity.”

Not surprisingly. browngrotta arts has its own list — four more artists to follow if you admire Asawa:

Kay Sekimachi monofilament
79k Ogawa II, Kay Sekimachi, monofilament, 76″(h) x 11″ x 11″, 1969. Photos by Tom Grotta

First, Asawa’s contemporary, Kay Sekimachi (b. 1926). Kay Sekimachi is best known for her ethereal monofilament sculptures. The series began in 1963 as an experiment to weave a wall hanging in multiple, translucent layers. After weaving a linen sample, Sekimachi realized she could produce three-dimensional forms using Dupont’s recently introduced nylon monofilament material. Sekimachi wove her monofilament sculptures as flat, interlocking layers that when suspended, folded-out into organic forms that she named after natural phenomena. Ogawa II, on display here, translates from Japanese to “little river” or “stream.”

Shoko Fukuda
9sf Connected Contours VII, Shoko Fukuda, ramie thread, synthetic resin, 10.25” x 10” x 15.75”, 2025. Photo by Tom Grotta

Similarly evocative, though differently executed, are Shoko Fukuda’s undulating sculptures of white ramie. Shoko Fukuda is a basketmaker and Japanese artist who has exhibited her work internationally for the past 10 years. Fukuda currently works as an instructor at Kobe Design University in the Fashion Design department. Fukuda is interested in “distortion” as a characteristic of basket weaving. “As I coil the thread around the core and shape it while holding the layers together, I look for the cause of distortion in the nature of the material, the direction of work and the angle of layers to effectively incorporate these elements into my work. The elasticity and shape of the core significantly affect the weaving process, as the thread constantly holds back the force of the core trying to bounce back outward.” By selecting materials and methods for weaving with the natural distortion in mind, Fukuda saw the possibility of developing twists and turns. “I find it interesting to see my intentions and the laws of nature influencing each other to create forms.”  Connected Contours VII evokes forms from nature. Fukuda imagined a structure resembling a bird spreading its wings and constructed the form based on this concept. By connecting parts of the contours, she says, “the individual shapes retain their inherent twisted forms and natural movement, while the overall structure is designed to achieve harmony.”

Kyoko Kumai
Kyoko Kumai, Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers exhibition installation at the Japan Society. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Working in metal, like Asawa, is Kyoko Kumai. She weaves thin metal wires together to make a textile which she uses as a means of expression to explore various aspects of wind, air, and light. The walls, or carpets, or rooms of shimmery filaments she creates are revelatory. Kumai has had 67 solo exhibitions since 1983, including exhibiting Air at the Museum of Modern Art’s Project Space in 1991. Roberta Smith wrote in The New York Times that the stainless steel Kumai used in Air “is eminently industrial” … “Yet the same qualities that make Miss Kumai’s work seem contemporary and Western are also quintessentially Japanese: foremost is its obvious faith in the power of beautiful materials handled simply but creatively and in unexpected ways.” Smith concluded that Kumai’s work was one of the strongest works of Japanese art to be shown in New York in some time.”  (Roberta Smith, “Review/Art; A Weaving of Stainless-Steel Thread,” The New York Times, May 10, 1991.)


Detail: 1ypb Cosmic Series, Yvonne
Detail: 1ypb Cosmic Series, Yvonne Pacanovsky Bobrowicz, knotted monofilament, gold leaf, 25″ x 20″ x 7″ Photo by Tom Grotta

Working in monofilament, like Kay Sekimachi, but with differing results, was Yvonne Pacanovsky Bobrowicz (1928 – 2022).  An awarding-winning artist, Bobrowicz was known for her cascading, light-transmitting sculptures made of synthetic monofilament. Bobrowicz was concerned with interconnections — interconnectedness and continuum. The artist told the Senior Artists Initiative in Philadelphia in 2003, “My work has been combining natural materials with synthetics, relating opposites, randomness and order — dark, light, reflective, opaque, and light absorbent, incorporating gold leaf, reflecting sculptures of monofilament, reflective and alchemically symbolic — unifying them in a variety of densities, scale, and configurations.” Bobrowicz studied with Marianne Strengell at the Cranbook Academy of Art and with Anni Albers at the Philadelphia Museum and School of Industrial Art, now University of the Arts. In the 1980s, she collaborated with renowned architect Louis Kahn. Like Sekimachi, Bobrowicz’s mesmerizing work captivated audiences with its light-transmitting qualities. Images of several of her works can be found online at the Sapir Contemporary Gallery website.


Dispatches: Connecticut

Cornwell Bridge
Covered bridge in Sharon/WestCornwall, CT. Photo by Tom Grotta

We have been following our own advice and trekking to the fiber events we’ve been promoting around the Connecticut.

Right in our neighborhood, we found Julia Bland ’s installation at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield. 

Julia Bland, Woven in the Reeds. Photo by Tom Grotta

Julia Bland: Woven in the Reeds is the artist’s first solo museum presentation, debuting a monumental tapestry composed of canvas, ropes, linen nets, and fabrics that are dyed, woven, braided, tied, and sewn by hand. Bland grew up in Palo Alto, California, the Museum explains, in the shadow of the counterculture movement of the 1960s–70s, and in the nascent stages of technological utopianism. “Raised by parents with different religious backgrounds—her mother is Jewish, and her father is a Presbyterian minister—Bland’s upbringing was marked by a blend of spiritual influences. In 2008, she was awarded a fellowship to work in Morocco, where she lived on and off for several years. During this time, she studied Sufism and immersed herself in the country’s rich customs, materials, and craftsmanship. Informed by these personal experiences, Bland’s textiles reflect a synthesis of visual cultures across time and place. Her work blends the tie-dyed, kaleidoscopic imagery of psychedelia with sacred Islamic geometry and Judeo-Christian symbols.” While we were there, we took advantage of the Aldrich’s recently expanded and redesigned sculpture garden–beautifully laid out and interesting to walk through.

Sculpture from A Garden of Promise and Dissent
Sculpture from A Garden of Promise and Dissent inaugurates. Photo by Tom Grotta

Ridgefield Road, on which the Aldrich is located, hosts several beautifully maintained Victorian homes and a quaint downtown also worth exploring. 

WFAN opening, Judy Mulford
WEFAN visitors examining at a work by Judy Mulford. Photo by Tom Grotta

Julia Bland’s work is also included in WEFAN in West Cornwall, Connecticut through June 28, 2025. West Cornwall is in a picturesque part of Connecticut — even more so this time of year when the woods are green and the river is running high. 

Dorothy Gill Barnes
Dorothy Gill Barnes works at WEFAN. Photo by Tom Grotta

WEFAN is in a jewel-box space, which served as a library beginning in 1940. The collection of work in WEFAN (a term drawn from Old English, meaning “to weave,”) is thoughtfully curated and meticulously installed by Dina Shaulov-Wright. Many artists that work with browngrotta arts are included: Ed Rossbach, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Sue Lawty, Norma Minkowitz, Judy Mulford, Dominic DiMare, Marion Hildebrandt, and Masako Yoshida. We were at the opening, which was well attended. Rhonda particularly enjoyed speaking to artist Maris Van Vlack about her work, Breakout/Breakdown. Van Vleck uses a variety of fibers, from thin threads to commericial rope, to create hand-woven work by architectural ruins, the New England landscape, and old family photographs, exploring how architectural structures retain the memory of events that occurred within a particular space.

Nichael Warren Gallery

We also enjoyed visiting the Michael Warren Gallery  nearby and had an exceptional meal at The Pink House. All well worth a trip. Photos by Tom Grotta 

The Pink House Postcard

Earlier in May, we visited the exhibitions at the Silvermine Art Galleries in New Canaan, CT. Fiber 2025 features more than 30 artists. In addition, 19 artists from browngrotta arts have works in display. Fiber 2025, Masters of the Medium: CT and Mastery and Materiality: International are up through June 19th.  Tom and Rhonda will be speaking about the exhibitions there on June 7, 2025 at 2:30.

Silvermine is a historic landmark on a five-acre campus in New Canaan. It encompasses an award-winning School of Art with over 4,000 annual enrollments; a nationally renowned Guild of over 300 professional artists; and a complex of five galleries, with free admission, presenting exhibitions by emerging and established contemporary artists. 

Hope you can see them all!

Rosana Escobar
Rosana Escobar, Colombia. Silvermine Art Galleries in New Canaan, CT. Grand Prize Awardee Fiber 2025. Photo by Tom Grotta

Art Assembled

We have had a busy May. We presented Field Notes: an art survey in person at browngrotta arts in Wilton, CT and online.  We have partnered with the Silvermine Art Galleries on three exhibitions that run through June 19, 2025 (IFiber 2025; Masters of the Medium: CT; Mastery and Materiality: International), and loaned several works to the thoughtfully curated exhibition WEFAN in West Cornwall, CT (through June 28, 2025). And, we highlighted a new work online in New this Week each Monday for your review.

Cat's Eyes wall hanging by Keiji Nio
Keiji Nio, 33kn Cat’s Eyes, polyester, aramid fiber, 48” x 47” x 1”, 2025. Photo by Tom Grotta

In recapping those intriguing offerings, we begin with Keiji Nio’s captivating Cat’s EyesNio is captivated by these enigmatic animals. “When I suddenly feel a gaze and turn my eyes, I sometimes find a cat staring intently at me,” he says. “Especially quiet cats, who do not meow much, whooften keep their expression unchanged, gazing without blinking, as if trying to convey something unknowable. When I return the gaze, there are moments when we slowly exchange blinks.” Nio sought to confront his memories and emotional response to cats through images he silk-screened onto aramid fabric, with which he created a wall work edged in sand.

Polly Barton No Strings Attached tapestry
Polly Barton, 16pb No Strings Attached, silk, double ikat with pictorial weft ikat. Natural dyes, walnut ink, rubbed pigment. 31” x 62″ x 2.5”, 2025. Photo by Tom Grotta

Polly Barton finds solace in following the thread, which she calls “a kind of wayfinding.” She creates a surface to rub color in a variety of forms; dye, pigment, pastel, ink. “Working at the loom where my threads are in order and my fingers work with what feels real, chaos is temporarily kept at bay,” she says. No Strings Attached began as a small watercolor sketch — a memory of petroglyphs — field notes from the past carved into basalt stones found while hiking paths in canyons. “My sketch,” she says,”like a voice from the past, beckoned to be woven as a fluid path forward into our spinning world. In my studio, Sheryl Crow sings: ‘Everyday is a winding road.I get a little bit closer … to what is really real.’

Christine Joy Peak in the Clouds rock and willow basket
Christine Joy, 52cj Peak in the Clouds, willow, rock, 7″ x 9″ x 6″, 2024. Photo by Tom Grotta

Peak in the Cloudsis the first of a short series of “landforms,” that Christine Joy started in 2022 when she was on Washington Island, Wisconsin at a willow-gathering retreat. (You can read more about Joy’s willow-gatherine process in an earlier arttextstyle post.) She picked up the rock on the shores of Lake Superior noting that it was very different rock there than in Montana where she lives. “It was so black, sparkly, and geometric with a sharp point,” she says. “It occurred to me that rocks are just small landscapes. I started weaving around the rock during the retreat. Then, I let it sit for over a year; I just didn’t have the right color willow to work on it.” Eventually, she added more yellow. “I really like the color, like sunset in the clouds. The yellow changes colors slowly as it dries, losing some of its vibrancy, but blending better with the brown willow.” 

Caroline Bartlett wall hanging
Caroline Bartlett, 26cb Juncture, Linen, cotton thread, perspex battening, 61″ x 26.5″, 2025. Photo by Tom Grotta

Caroline Bartlett explores the historical, social, and cultural associations of textiles, their significance in relation to touch and their ability to trigger memory, in her work. She Imprints, stitches, erases, and reworks cloth, folding and unfolding, and often integrating textiles with other media such as porcelain. Her new work, Juncture, she says, “suggests ‘a point of time, especially one made critical or important by a concurrence of circumstances’ while disjuncture suggests ‘a disconnection between two things. The language of textiles speaks of entanglements and connectivity, of continuity and severance, and pink might be considered as a field for nurture. Blocks of intersecting color are revealed through a manipulated surface and hold firm with concepts of control. Simultaneously, they become squeezed and threads displaced as notions of old certainties and understandings fall away. The whole becomes a metaphor for the personal or for the wider social, ecological, and political sphere.”

Thanks again to all the artists we work with who continually send us such marvelous work. Keep watching; we’re committed to showing and sharing more art online and in person.