25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Gyongy Laky

April 4, 2012 0 Comment

DRY LAND DRIFTER Detail, Gyongy Laky, Photo by Tom Grotta

Gyöngy Laky’s sculptures, site-specific outdoor works, typography wall sculptures and vessels are composed of orchard debris and tree prunings, screws, nails, telephone wire or other nontraditional joinery like cable ties, food skewers, toothpicks and golf tees. Laky admits to a fascination with simple, improvisational constructions and architecture, such as scaffolding and fences. Her provocative works lead viewers to question what is and what is not waste in a throwaway culture —

115L DRY LAND DRIFTER, Gyongy Laky, dead tree, bullets for building, 32″ x 22″ 22″, 2010, photo by Tom Grotta

from the environment to war dead. At SOFA 2012, browngrotta arts will exhibit two of Laky’s works, including Dry Land Drifter, which is composed of dead tree baranches and bullets for building. Laky is a Fellow of the American Craft Council. Her work is in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, the Smithsonian’s Renwick Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the  Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin.

 

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Lawrence LaBianca

April 3, 2012 0 Comment

The Strong Are Saying Nothing DETAIL, PHOTO BY TOM GROTTA

Lawrence LaBianca wants “to be the blacksmith of the future.” His sculptures are both abstract and narrative, combining the natural, like branches,twigs and stones, and the manmade, including glass and metal  hinges and pulleys, in intriguing ways that create insightful messages about out role in the natural world. In The Strong Are Saying Nothing, one of two works by LaBianca that browngrotta arts will exhibit at SOFA NY 2012, the artist was influenced by the work of Robert Frost and by toy push puppets that become animated through kinetic activity.

5lb The Strong Are Saying Nothing Lawrence LaBianca, oak, steel, modified winch, steel cable102” x 32” x 24.5”, 2011, photo by Tom Grotta.

The result was an animated tree of oak, steel, cable and a modified winch, that requires the viewer to consider ideas of taming, manipulation, innocence and constraint. LaBianca just finished an artist’s residency at Anderson Ranch in Colorado. He is an Adjunct Professor at the California College of the Arts. His work has been exhibited at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Craft and Folk Museum, San Francisco, California; Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts; Virginia Groot Foundation Visual Perspectives, Chicago, Illinois; Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, California; Oliver Arts Center, Oakland, California; Richmond Art Center, California; Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, California; Bitters Gallery, Seattle, Washington.

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Luba Krejci

April 2, 2012 0 Comment

Luba Krejci Thread Drawing, photo by Tom Grotta

At SOFA NY 2012, browngrotta arts will present two thread drawings from the 1970s by Czechoslovokian artist Luba Krejci (1925-2005).

Krejci was an extremely diversified artist who made lace, embroidered and printed textiles, created tapestries, straw figures, wickerwork and children’s clothing. She made handbags and hats and exhibited extensively in Europe, Canada, the United States, Japan, Russia, Argentina and New Zealand.

THREAD DRAWING, Luba Krejci, 18.5″ x 18, photo by Tom Grotta

Her most significant contribution to field of textile history, however, was her adaptation of the traditional needle and bobbin lace, to create a technique that she called nitak or “little threaded one,” which enabled her to draw with thread,  She generally created her pieces in black linen thread but white, red and light brown examples also exist. At SOFA, browngrotta arts will have examples of works in black and brown.

Krejci’s work is in numerous public collections, including those ofThe Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, Czechoslovakia; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, theNetherlands; Museum Bellerive, Lausanne, Switzerland; Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia; Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York; Museum of Applied Arts, Brno, Czechoslovakia and the Czech
Ministry of Culture, Prague, Czechoslovakia.

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Yasuhisa Kohyama

April 1, 2012 0 Comment

 

SUEMONO by Yasuhisa Kohyama, photo by Tom Grotta

 At SOFA NY 2012, browngrotta arts will exhibit several pieces by ceramicist Yasuhisa Kohyama including Suemono. Suemono means ancient ceramic. Kohyama has nicknamed this piece “Dogu.” A dogu is an ancient Japanese clay figure, an earthen doll, made during the Jomon period.The artist made the archetypal piece in this shape in 1984 and returned to it in 2009. In the late 1960s, Kohyama was a pioneer in the revival of the Shigaraki region’s ancient ceramic traditions. As Robert Yellin described in the Japan Times (April 10, 2002), Kohyama draws inspiration from  ancient Japanese wares, “in a vital and energetic way, creating original sculptured forms that pay homage to his ceramic roots without being carbon copies of them.” Yellin gave an example, Kohyama’s triangular works with sharp wavy edges.

SUEMONO by Yasuhisa Kohyama, photo by Tom Grotta

“These have no decoration, only the warmth of their own muted orange clay. This allows the form of each to ‘speak,’ as if in a bold whisper. These works lack the ornate decoration of their distant Jomon cousins, fired 10,000 years ago, yet share something of the same verve and temperament. This also goes for Kohyama’s gray, vertical pieces that hark back to the fifth-12th century sueki wares — the first Japanese pots fired in an anagama (a single-chambered tunnel kiln). Introduced via Korea, the anagama reshaped the Japanese ceramic scene.” Kohyama’s work is in the collections of leading museums around the world, including the Museum of Arts and Crafts Hamburg, the Musée National de Ceramique, Sèvres, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This July will see the publication of Yasuhisa Kohyama: The Art of Ceramics (Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart, Germany).

 

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Anda Klancic

March 31, 2012 0 Comment

Anda Klancic, Black Grove detail, photo by Tom Grotta

Cerni Goj means the black grove in the ancient Slovenian language, but it is also a surname in Slovenia, the name of the late Slovenian painter and graphic artist, August Cernigoj. At SOFA NY 2012 , browngrotta arts will exhibit Anda Klancic’s work, The Black Grove. The work involved several techniques and manipulations, took 13 years to complete and explores the themes of global linkage and the interaction of humans and nature.
Klancic’s  first stimulus for The Black Grove was the structure of the vein-like net of the dried fruit from the plant echynocystis lobata, a wild pumpkin. Inspired by this natural structure, Klancic designed a pattern for industrial machine-embroidered lace and machine-embroidered fabric. From a piece of this embroidered fabric, produced from selected raw materials especially for this hand-manipulated experiment, she produced The Black Grove, using numerous hand-applied techniques.
Klancic’s work has garnered international acclaim. Her three-dimensional lace work, Foothpaths 2, was commended by the judges at last year’s International Triennial of Tapestry in Poland. Her lighted works Aura and Aura F&M, were presented at the Miniartextil Energheia touring exhibition that opened in Milan, Italy. Aura which is made of palm tree bark, optical fibre,  and includes three halogen light sources, is currently in Zagreb, Croatia in the Textil{e}tronic exhibition.

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Susie Gillespie

March 30, 2012 0 Comment

SETTLEMENT detail by Susie Gillespie, photo by Tom Grotta

Susie Gillespie’s weavings contain many influences besides those of ancient textiles that have survived the millennia. The artist writes that she finds “beauty in the ruins of what once must have been new: the patterns in damp and crumbling plaster; the remains of paint on decayed wood; rotting bark; broken carvings; fallen monoliths. Some of these I express in broken borders, insets and slits; twining and wrapping; weaves of herringbone and twill; mends, darns, fraying; drawn threads and slits.” She seeks to reinvent the past to some extent, “Despite my weaving having roots in the past, I look forward to a future where we do not discard things because they are worn out or outmoded. Out of decay and disintegration I wish to express a sense of renewal.”

Settlement by Susie Gillespie, antique handspun linen & Nepalese nettle yarn, modern linen, cotton, natural pigments from caves. gesso, hand-made paper, 45.5″ x 48″ x 1″, 2010, photo by Tom Grotta

At SOFA NY 2012, browngrotta arts will exhibit Gillespie’s 2012 work, Settlement, in which the artist has combined antique handspun linen yarn, handspun Nepalese nettle yarn, modern linen, cotton, natural pigments from caves, gesso and handmade paper to create a contemporary haptic artifact. Gillespie’s work has been exhibited at the Coombe Gallery, Dartmouth, UK; Somerset House, London, UK (Origin); Torre Abbey, Torquay, UK; Brewery Arts Centre. She is a recipient of the Theo Moorman Trust Weaving Award.

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Mary Giles

March 29, 2012 0 Comment

TWIST by Mary Giles, photo by Tom Grotta

53mg TWIST, Mary Giles, waxed linen, iron twists, and hammered tin coated copper wire, 22″ x 10″ x 5″, 2012, photo by Tom Grotta

Mary Giles‘ sculptures, Sentry Field and Twist, made of knotted linen, pressed metal and springs, will be on display at browngrotta arts at SOFA 2012 , booth 208.  Giles says of her work,  “I interpret and express my concerns about our environment and the human condition through my work. I have also explored themes related to communication and intimacy in relationships, and the results are reflected in my figural work. Today, however, I am very concerned about the environment and try to capture the forms, textures, and light found in nature. I admire the directness and honesty I see in tribal art, and I try to incorporate those qualities in my own.” Giles’ work is in numerous museum collections including that of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the St. Louis Art Museum  and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Chris Drury

March 28, 2012 0 Comment

Crossing and Recrossing the Rivers of Iceland by Chris Drury, photo by Tom Grotta

Chris Drury’s Crossing and Re-crossing the Rivers of Iceland will be exhibited by browngrotta arts at SOFA NY 2012. The handwritten text on the peat-impregnated paper lists and repeats all the rivers crossed on a six- day walk from Porsmork to Landmanalauga in Iceland. The pattern is from a satellite image of a storm that hit us on the fourth day. The story behind Crossing and Re-crossing the Rivers of Iceland Drury and a friend with a heart condition, went on a six-day walk in central Iceland. On the fourth day they were hit by a storm and waited out the night in a hut. The following day, the storm was still raging but they used a four-hour lull to try and catch their plane.  They started for the next hut at 3:00 p.m., crossing a cold river and climbing 2000 feet to a snow-covered plateau. On the top the storm returned and they were enveloped in a whiteout.

7cd Crossing and Recrossing the Rivers of Iceland, photo by TomGrotta

Drury’s friend announced that he wasn’t going to make it to the hut. He was, in fact, having a heart attack. Drury didn’t know it, but his heart was shutting down. He gave him some water, which he used to swallow pills given him by his doctor for just such an emergency. The pills saved his life and he was able to make it to the hut. This experience is reflected in Crossing and Re-crossing the Rivers of Iceland. The blood flows in the heart in a double vortex pattern called a Cardiac Twist; the storm that Drury and his friend were caught in had that same pattern. Drury is an environmental artist who has created site-specific works from South Africa to Ireland to Wyoming. In recent years he has studied systems in the body and on the planet, with particular reference to systems of blood flow in the heart, including combining measurements of the “Earth’s heartbeat,” echograms of Antarctica, with the heartbeat, echocardiogram, of a pilot who flies there in his work, Double Echo. Drury’s work has been included in several books, including Chris Drury: Found Moments in Time and Space (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.).

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Lia Cook

March 27, 2012 0 Comment

Neural Networks Detail by Lia Cook, photo by Tom Grotta

At SOFA NY 2012, browngrotta arts‘ display will include Neural Networks by Lia Cook. Cook works in a variety of media, combining weaving with painting, photography, video and digital technology. Cook’s current practice explores the sensuality of the woven image and the emotional connections to memories of touch and cloth. Working in collaboration with neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine,

23lc Neural Networks, Lia Cook, woven cotton and rayon, 83″ x 51″ x 1.5″, 2011, photo by Tom Grotta

Cook has investigated the nature of the emotional response to woven faces by mapping in the brain these responses and using the laboratory experience both with process and tools to stimulate her work in reaction to these investigations. Her solo exhibition, Bridge 11: Lia Cook, which includes large-scale woven images of human faces and introduces several works based on her recent art-neuroscience collaboration, is at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft through May 13th. Cook is one of 11 artists whose work is highlighted in the current exhibition, Sourcing the Museum, at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC through August 19th and one of 14 artists featured in Sleight of Hand at the Denver Art Museum through May 13th.

25 at 25 at SOFA NY Countdown: Marian Bijlenga

March 26, 2012 0 Comment

DIAMOND DOTS 5-V detail by Marian Bijlenga, photo by Tom Grotta

At SOFA NY 2012 this year,  browngrotta arts will exhibit work from the Diamond Dots series by Marian Bijlenga of the Netherlands. Bijlenga studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, has taught workshops at Kawashima Textile School, Kyoto,  the Aalto University School of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland and will teach at the Haystack School of Crafts in Maine this summer. Her work is found in the permanent collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Textile Museum, Tilburg, the Netherlands and the LongHouse Reserve in New York.

17mb DIAMOND DOTS 5-V, Marian Bijlenga, horsehair, fabric, viscose, machine embroidered, 28″ x 28″, 2011, photo by Tom Grotta

“I am fascinated by dots, lines and contours, by their rhythmical movements but also by the empty space they confine,” the artist explains. “Instead of drawing on paper, I draw in space using textile as a material. By leaving some space between the structure and the wall the object is freed from its background and interacts with the white wall. It becomes what I call a ‘”spatial drawing.'”