Twenty international women artists of substance and significance are heralded in Impact: 20 Women Artists to Collect one of the groupings in Ways of Seeing at browngrotta arts this Fall. Ways of Seeing explores the varied ways in which people curate their art collections. Collecting by artist, including by race, sexual identity, country of origin, or as in Impact, by gender, is one of the ways in which collections are assembled.

In 2019, Artsy, an online platform we collaborate with, hosted 3,999 galleries. Only 8% of these galleries represented more women artists than men. browngrotta arts is among that 8%, promoting a diverse array of exceptional women artists beyond the group featured in Impact: 20 Women Artists to Collect. The selection in Impact, though a small sample of the women artists we work with, is a group, both intriguing and influential. The artists span various nationalities—including North America, Europe, Asia, and South America—and generations, with birth years ranging from 1917 to 1960. Each artist has mastered both traditional and experimental techniques, while expanding the boundaries of textiles as fine art. 

Impact will feature a multifaceted group of sculptures and weavings made from 1976 to 2024. The artists in Impact have demonstrated a knowledge of traditional and experimental techniques, while redefining the perception of textiles as fine art. “Each of these artists have enlarged the expectations and possibilities of fiber art through their singular, iconic practices,” says browngrotta arts co-curator, Tom Grotta. 

Ethel Stein (1917), for example, who would be 107 if she were still alive, studied under Josef Albers. Intensive study of historical textiles led her to reinterpret historical textile structures using contemporary looms, blending modernist Bauhaus ideals of simplicity, order, functionality, and modesty. In contrast, Katherine Westphal (1919), an eclectic artist from the same era, worked across ceramics, quilting, basketmaking, and wearable art. 

Born 30 years later in Korea, Jin-Sook So (1950) and Yeonsoon Chang (1950), began as traditional textile makers, then moved to exploring sculptural forms. So creates light-reflecting, three-dimensional works using electroplated and painted stainless steel mesh that evoke silk organza. Chang molds abaca fibers and Teflon mesh into structures that investigate the universe, coated with an eco-friendly resin she developed. 

In between those decades, textile sculptors are Simone Pheulpin and Hisako Sekijima, born 1940 and 1944, respectively, renowned innovators. Pheulpin transforms unbleached cotton strips into organic forms reminiscent of bark, ceramics, fossilized rock, coral, or shell, using stainless steel pins instead of stitching or glue — a technique entirely of her own design. For decades, Sekijima has been on what the Victoria & Albert Museum has described as “a journey of radical experimentation,” expanding upon traditional Japanese basketmaking techniques to create inventive non-utilitarian objects, noted for their exploration of volume, mass, and space.

Discover more about these 20 exceptional artists in person at Ways of Seeing or in our catalog. https://store.browngrotta.com/c-54-ways-of-seeing/

Exhibition Details:
Ways of Seeing
exploring ways individuals envision and curate art collections
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road
Wilton, CT 06897

Gallery Dates/Hours:
Saturday, September 21st: 11am to 6pm [Opening & Artist Reception]
Sunday, September 22nd: 11am to 6pm (40 visitors/ hour)
Monday, September 23rd through Saturday,September 28th: 10am to 5pm (40 visitors/ hour)
Sunday, September 29th: 11am to 6pm [Final Day] (40 visitors/ hour)

browngrotta.com

Schedule your visit at POSH. 
Safety protocols: Reservations strongly encouraged; No narrow heels please (barn floors)

We were very excited to visit Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women last month, just after it opened at the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Besides thoroughly enjoying the engaging exhibition, we were pleased to catch up with senior curator of the exhibition, Mary Savig, friend of the gallery, Kathleen Mangan of the Lenore Tawney Foundation, and artist, Lia Cook (and see her exquisite work, Crazy Too Quilt).

As the Gallery notes explain, the 33 selected artworks in Subversive, Skilled Sublime piece together an alternative history of American art. Accessible and familiar, fiber handicrafts have long provided a source of inspiration for women. The artists in this exhibition took up fiber arts, dismissed by many art critics as menial labor, to complicate this historic marginalization and also revolutionize its import to contemporary art. They drew on personal experiences, particularly their vantage points as women, and intergenerational skills, to transform humble threads into resonant and intricate artworks.

The works in the exhibition are artfully displayed. From the dramatic Claire Zeisler at the entrance to the exhibition, to the Lenore Tawney Cloud in the room just behind, to the narrow circular alcove where an ethereal Kay Sekimachi monofilament hangs in space, there are many vignettes that delight. We had a few (maybe more than a few) favorites. Lenore Tawney’s In the Dark Woods from 1959 is a revelation. It represents the artist’s open warp technique in which she pulled fiber through the vertical threads (the warp) by hand to create painterly, gestural forms. Unveiling of the Statue of Liberty is an exceptional Katherine Westphal quilt. We also loved Faith Ringgold’s The Bitter Nest, Part II: The Harlem Renaissance Party and its fascinating backstory.

New to us was A Matter of Trust, Maria Emilia-Faedo’s quilt of metal mesh. “I collected secrets from friends and strangers, sealed them in ordinary envelopes, and sewed them into the quilt’s pockets,” the artist told Paradise News magazine. The envelopes containing the secrets are known only to their authors and were never read by Emilia-Faedo. We also loved Red and Blue, the 1969 work by Else Regensteiner.

We were also impressed by the dedicated gallery space of archival materials, and spent a good amount of time there. It provides a window into the artists’ studios, deepening insight into their creative processes with sketches, mail art, and photographs. There are many resources on line, including portraits of a few of the artists. All of the artworks are drawn from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s permanent collection; archival materials and interviews are selected from collections of the Archives of American Art. 

You have until January 5, 2025 to see Subversive, Skilled, Sublime. In the meantime, you can see work by four of the artists in Sublime, Katherine Westphal, Adela Akers, Lia Cook, and Kay Sekimachi at browngrotta arts’ in Impact: 20 Women Artists to Collect, part of our fall exhibition, Ways of Seeing.