Art Assembled – New This Week in October

As October comes to a close, we take a moment to reflect on the incredible artists and their works that have graced our New This Week series throughout the month. Our spotlight shone brightly on the creative minds of Tim Johnson, Gyöngy Laky, Glen Kaufman, Stéphanie Jacques, and Dona Look. Their unique talents and innovative approaches to art have left a lasting impression on our community.

But, that’s not all that October brought to browngrotta arts. We proudly launched the much-anticipated Vignettes exhibition, a harmonious fusion of three distinct showcases. Our in-person exhibition opened its doors, allowing art enthusiasts to experience the masterful craftsmanship of wood sculptor Dorothy Gill Barnes, the visionary weaving and surface design of Glen Kaufman, and the captivating diversity of An Abundance of Objects, featuring an array of baskets, ceramics, and sculptures crafted by over three dozen talented artists.

As we bid farewell to October, we invite you to join us in revisiting the highlights from our New This Week features and to explore the rich tapestry of Vignettes, now viewable on our website. At browngrotta arts, art and creativity continue to converge in a breathtaking display of talent and inspiration.

Tim Johnson
22tj Wall Pocket, Tim Johnson, willow skein, earth pigments, split chestnut and tarred
hemp twine, 20” x 10” x 6”, 2023. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Welcome to another edition of our New This Week series, where we embark on a journey through the world of contemporary art, one artist at a time. To kick off the month of October, we delve into the captivating creations of Tim Johnson, a skilled artist and basketmaker hailing from the United Kingdom.

With a rich history spanning nearly three decades, Tim Johnson has dedicated himself to exploring the intricate relationships between materials, place, nature, and culture. His artistic voyage is a fusion of traditional craftsmanship and innovative techniques, influenced by his extensive travels across the globe.

What sets Tim Johnson apart is his ability to breathe new life into humble materials and age-old practices. He blurs the lines between art and craft, inviting us to reconsider how we perceive both. Notably, you can find his work showcased in the current online version of the Vignettes exhibition at browngrotta arts, a testament to his lasting impact on the world of contemporary art.

Gyöngy Laky
48L.1 Beach Sketch, Gyöngy Laky, twigs, wire, plastic, cloth, 57″ x 50″ x 6″, 1987. Photo by Tom Grotta.

As we look back on our features throughout October, it’s clear that Gyöngy Laky is a remarkable artist who has left an indelible mark on the world of sculpture. Her ability to blend tradition and innovation, creating sculptures that transcend boundaries, is nothing short of inspiring.

Laky’s influence extends far and wide, with her works featured in exhibitions spanning continents. Her early recognition for her linear sculptures, rooted in the architectural techniques of textile arts, marked the beginning of a remarkable career. Beyond gallery spaces, she has ventured into the realm of site-specific outdoor installations and contributed to land art projects in various corners of the globe, showcasing her adaptability and creativity.

We’re thrilled to have shared her captivating artwork with you this past month, and we invite you to explore more of her work, including her presence in the Vignettes exhibition, online November 22.

Glen Kaufman
152-155gk Istana/Seri Menanti, Glen Kaufman, yarn-dyed silk stripe, copper, 28.75″ x 47.5″, 1998. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Up next, we were privileged to feature the remarkable works of the late, renowned artist Glen Kaufman. Kaufman’s artistic legacy, spanning over four remarkable decades, left an indelible mark on the world of art.

Kaufman’s artistic odyssey began with a foundation in textural weaving and macramé, setting the stage for a lifelong pursuit of creative discovery. His restless spirit and boundless imagination led him to traverse uncharted territories in the realm of surface design. With a fusion of traditional techniques and contemporary sensibilities, he crafted sculptural forms that challenged the boundaries of artistic expression.

In the later stages of his career, Kaufman’s work underwent a transformation, reflecting a profound connection with Japanese aesthetics and architecture. His pieces, adorned with intricate photo collages and the application of gold and silver leaf, demonstrated a deep appreciation for the beauty of Japan’s artistic heritage.

As we celebrated Kaufman’s contributions this past month, we were reminded that true artistry transcends the constraints of time and place. We’re honored to continue his legacy by featuring his artistry in our ongoing Vignettes exhibition, where his works continue to inspire and captivate.

Stéphanie Jacques
4-5-20sj Paniers-liens II-IV, Stéphanie Jacques, 60″ x 20.5″ x 16″ (22″ x 17.25″ x 17.25″; 43.25″ x 15.5″ x 17.75″; 60″ x 20.5″ x 16″), 2011. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Continuing our artistic journey through October, we cast our spotlight on Stéphanie Jacques, an artist whose work revolves around the art of connection. Jacques’s unique approach centers on weaving together elements that seemingly exist on opposite ends of the spectrum: hard and soft, old and new, valuable and trivial, conscious and unconscious, human and plant.

Her chosen mediums include wood, wicker, and clay, each one a canvas for her imaginative exploration. Basketry, cutting, and intricate assembly serve as both her tools and her muse, propelling her to discover novel solutions to age-old questions.

With each sculpture and installation, she delves deeper into the notion of connection, weaving together the threads of life in her own unique way. And yes, you’ll also find her work thoughtfully showcased in our ongoing Vignettes exhibition, a testament to her exceptional talent and boundless creativity.

Dona Look
12dl Basket #84, Dona Look, white birch bark and waxed silk thread, 8″ x 7″ x 7″, 1984

And last, but certainly not least, we highlighted the work of artist Dona Look. Look is a skilled basket maker from the beautiful landscapes of Wisconsin. Look’s art is deeply connected to the nature that surrounds her. She starts her creative process by gathering bark from the region’s birch trees. With this simple yet extraordinary material, she weaves intricate baskets, capturing the essence of the woodlands in her craft. To hold everything together, she uses silk thread, turning these natural elements into stunning works of art.

We were delighted to feature this talented artist’s work in the ongoing Vignettes exhibition, where her creations shine alongside those of other exceptional artists.

October has been more than just a showcase of talent; it’s been a month of expansion and connection. The launch of our Vignettes exhibition, both in-person and online, has allowed us to bridge physical and digital spaces, bringing art enthusiasts closer to the remarkable works of Dorothy Gill Barnes, Glen Kaufman, and a myriad of other gifted artists. If you want to learn more about the artists and artwork in Vignettes: one venue; three exhibitions, join our Zoom presentation on November 17 at 7 pm EST: Art on the Rocks: an exhibition talkthrough with spirits!

As we bid farewell to this month, we extend our gratitude to our dedicated community of artists, collectors, and art lovers. We look forward to seeing what November brings!


Art Out and About: Exhibitions Here and Abroad

It’s a fall full of cultural attractions — across the US and abroad. Hope you can take in one or two!

Tamiko Kawata’s Self Portrait, 1996 and Vertical Wave, 1986

Tamiko Kawata: Beyond Edge, Beyond Surface
November 1- 28, 2023
Opening Reception November 1 6-8 p.m.
Pollock Gallery
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas 
https://calendar.smu.edu/site/meadows/event/tamiko-kawata-beyond-edge-beyond-surface–opening-reception/

The artist will create an onsite installation on October 29 – 30th

Weaving at Black Mountain College:
Anni Albers,Trude Guermonprez, and Their Students
through January 6, 2023
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
Asheville, NC
https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/weaving/

Weaving at Black Mountain College Installation. photo by BMCM+AC staff featuring The Weaver, painted on the weaving studio door by Faith Murray Britton in 1942.

Weaving at Black Mountain College: Anni Albers,Trude Guermonprez, and Their Students will be the first exhibition devoted to textile practices at Black Mountain College (BMC). Celebrating 90 years since the college’s founding, the exhibition will reveal how weaving was a more significant part of BMC’s legendary art and design curriculum than previously assumed.

BMC’s weaving program was started in 1934 by Anni Albers and lasted until the College closed in 1956. About 10% of all Black Mountain College students took at least one class in weaving. Despite Albers’s elevated reputation, the persistent treatment of textile practices as women’s work or handicraft has often led to the discipline being ignored or underrepresented in previous scholarship and exhibitions about the College; this exhibition brings that work into the spotlight at last. The exhibition will also feature work by selected contemporary artists whose work connects to the legacies of the BMC weavers: Kay Sekimachi, Jen Bervin, Porfirio Gutiérrez, Susie Taylor, and Bana Haffar. They’ve produced a catalog for the exhibition, too, that will be available October 31st. 

Folding Silences
through November 9, 2023
D21 Art Projects
Paeo Las Palmas
Providencia, Chile
https://www.d21virtual.cl/2023/09/20/comunicado-plegando-silencios-de-carolina-yrarrazaval/

Installation shot, Folding Silences exhibition. Photo by Jorge Brantmayer.

Through November 9th, the exhibition Plegando Silencios by international artist Carolina Yrarrázaval can be visited at gallery D21. The exhibition consists of a series of 12 tapestries that the artist has worked on in recent years experimenting with materials of plant origin, mainly with coconut fiber, which is intervened to obtain suggestive reliefs, textures, and transparencies that demand a new look at the artist’s work. The creative act of dyeing, folding, and incorporating raw material is transformed into the initial structure of a textile work that s, the gallery says, “seduces and incites the search for new sensations.”

Woven Histories: textiles and modern abstraction
through January 21, 2024
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles, CA
https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/woven-histories-textiles-and-modern-abstraction

Ed Rossbach, Damask Waterfall, 1977, LongHouse Reserve, © Ed Rossbach, photo © Charles Benton, courtesy The Artist’s Institute. Ed Rossbach, Lettuce Basket, 1982, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. Milton and Martha Dalitzky (M.2021.163.1), © Ed Rossbach, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.

Woven Histories sheds light on a robust, if over-looked, strand in art history’s modernist narratives by tracing how, when, and why abstract art intersected with woven textiles (and such pre-loom technologies as basketry, knotting, and netting) over the past century. Included are 150 works by an international and transhistorical roster of artists that includes Ed RossbachKatherine Westphal, Anni Albers, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Kay SekimachiLenore Tawney, and Sheila Hicks. The exhibition reveals how shifting relations among abstract art, fashion, design, and craft shaped recurrent aesthetic, cultural, and socio-political forces, as they, in turn, were impacted by modernist art forms. It is accompanied by a book of essays and images, that can be purchased at browngrotta.com.

Takaezu & Tawney: An Artist is a Poet
through March 25, 2024
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Bentonville, AK
https://crystalbridges.org/calendar/toshiko-takaezu-lenore-tawney/

Portrait of Lenore Tawney and Toshiko Takaezu at browngrotta arts’ exhibition Lenore Tawney: celebrating five decades of work, 2000. Photo by Tom Grotta

Takaezu & Tawney: An Artist is a Poet debuts 12 new acquisitions to the Crystal Bridges collection that tell the story of a remarkable friendship between Toshiko Takaezu and Lenore Tawney. Curated by Windgate Curator of Craft Jen Padgett, the exhibition highlights how these two women shaped craft history in the US by expanding and redefining the possibilities of their preferred mediums: Takaezu in ceramics, Tawney in weaving. Takaezu and Tawney had a close relationship for decades, from 1957 until Tawney’s death in 2007. From 1977 to 1981, Tawney lived at Takaezu’s Quakertown, New Jersey, home and the two shared studio space.

Tartan
through January 14, 2024
Victoria & Albert Museum
London, UK
https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/whatson/exhibitions/tartan

Louise Gray 2011. For her iconic collection ‘Up Your Look’, photo by Michael McGurk

If you are a fan of tartan (as we are), the V&A’s exhibition is for you. Tartan offers a thrilling view of over 300 mesmerizing objects showcasing tartan’s timeless appeal and rebellious spirit across fashion, architecture, art and design. See tartan worn by Bonnie Prince Charlie, a Scottish soldier’s unwashed kilt from the trenches of WWI, and the Bay City Rollers trousers handmade by a lifelong fan.

And there is always our Artsy Viewing Room that you can visit without leaving home: Glen Kaufman: Retrospective 1980 – 2010.

Enjoy!


Visit our Artsy Viewing Rooms

We are continuing our celebration of our Fall exhibition, Vignettes: one venue, three exhibitions in three Viewing Rooms on Artsy now through December 20, 2023. 

Glen Kaufman: Retrospective 1960-2010 on Artsy

The first of these, Glen Kaufman: Retrospective 1980 – 2010.viewable through November 6th, features 50 years of work by this master weaver and designer. The expansive collection of works in the Glen Kaufman Viewing Room include double weaves, macramés, a sculpture of polypropylene and collages of fabrics gathered from flea markets in Japan. Also included are woven works silk-screened with gold, silver or copper paste — a technique Kaufman pioneered to create elegant and eloquent works that blend Eastern and Western sensibilities. The work reflects his varied career, which included teaching at at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and University of Georgia, a Fulbright in Scandinavia, work at Dorothy Liebes’s New York studio, and time spent working in Japan over 14 years.

Works by Dorothy Gill Barnes from Dorothy Gill Barnes: in collaboration with nature. Photo by Tom Grotta

The second Vignettes Viewing Room, Dorothy Gill Barnes: in collaboration with nature, will begin on November 7th and run through November 28th. In this VR, you’ll find works by Barnes, a renowned sculptor, known for weaving bark, transforming natural materials, and for her experiments with glass artists, resulting in objects that mix glass and bark and branches in intriguing ways. Among Barnes’ innovations were “dendroglyphs,” markings she’d make on live tree bark, which she allowed to develop into readable scars for months or years before harvesting and using the resulting bark “drawings” in her works.

Installation of Abundance of Objects, one of the three Vignettes exhibitions. Photo by Tom Grotta

Last, but scarcely least of the the three Viewing Rooms will be An Abundance of Objects, which will run from November 29th through December 20th. The right object in the right space has the power to prompt memories, evoke feelings, and exert a palpable energy on one’s surroundings. An Abundance of Objects celebrates that power. You’ll see an eclectic collection of sculptures, ceramics, baskets, and mixed media works that inspire awe, admiration and, sometimes, sheer delight, Notable for its diversity — 80 objects in all — An Abundance of Objects celebrates the acquisition process.

040gk Kyoto Kawara IV, Glen Kaufman, yarn-dyed woven silk, copper leaf, 15″ x 14″ x 2.5″, 1995. Photo by Tom Grotta
11mg Anointed Rank, Mary Giles, waxed linen, wire, bone, paint, gesso, 10” x 31,” 1997. Photo by Tom Grotta

Hope you’ll visit the Artsy Viewing Rooms in October, November and December. Check out the catalogs we produced for each of these exhibitions at browngrotta.com.


Fall 2023 Art for a Cause — cARTie the Mobile Art Museum

Each year, we host two exhibitions at browngrotta arts — one in the Spring; one in the Fall. With each, we try to identify a nonprofit to promote as our Art for a Cause. Our hope is to bring the group visibility and donated funds. Previous Art for a Cause groups have included

cARTie bus
cARTie at Edgewood School. Photo courtesy of cARTie.

Americans for the Arts, Ports of Cause, The Woven Community, Connecticut Institute for Immigrants and Refugees, Sunflower of Peace, and the World Affairs Council.

We are excited to announce that this Fall our Art for a Cause organization is cArtie, the mobile art museum. browngrotta arts is pledging 5% of the profits from sales during our Fall in-person exhibition, Vignettes: one venue, three exhibitions (October 7 – 15th) to cARTie, a passionate nonprofit organization committed to empowering communities through art and education. By attending our exhibition and purchasing artworks, visitors directly support cARTie’s cause. Additionally, we are collecting cash and check donations made out to “cARTie,” onsite helping us make an even greater impact.

You can also contribute online or by mail. Send your checks to cARTie, 326 Navajo Loop, Shelton, CT 06484. Your contribution, whether through art purchases or donations, goes a long way to foster creativity and education. Join us in creating a brighter future for aspiring artists and learners.

cARTie bus students
cARTie-at-Northeast-Academy-(Clare-Murray). Photos courtesy of cARTie.

More about cARTie:

  1. cARTie is Connecticut’s first and only nonprofit mobile art museum bus committed to bridging inequities in education and arts access across the state. cARTie’s programming is focused on high-school student-artists, entire communities, and PreK-2 students with limited access to the arts in education. 
  1. cARTie ensures all young children positive and prolonged early introductions to museum-based learning and opportunities for developing critical and creative thinking dispositions. 
  1. cARTie will work with 5,000+ PreK-2 students this year and 27 elementary and pre-schools across the state with limited access to the arts in education (up from 17 last year and 7 the year before). cARTie visits these partners multiple times throughout the year, to help nurture students’ critical and creative thinking, as well as their museum habits of mind.

You can learn more about about cARTie on its website: https://www.cartie.org/

Schedule your visit to Vignettes: one venue, three exhibitions, and its three included exhibitions, Dorothy Gill Barnes: a way with wood; Glen Kaufman Elegant Eloquence; and An Abundance of Objects on Eventbrite.

Vignettes: one venue, three exhibitions
Vignettes: one venue, three exhibitions at browngrotta arts. Photos by Tom Grotta

Vignettes opens this week: Who’s New? Lissa Hunter

1lh The Gathering, Lissa Hunter, eleven-piece nesting basket set with handmade elements, 7” x 16”, 1994.

An Abundance of Objects, this Fall at browngrotta arts, will feature The Gathering, an interesting 1994 work made by Lissa Hunter, whose work we have not shown previously at the gallery. Hunter earned a BA in painting and an MFA in fibers at Indiana University. Choosing to work in both two and three dimensions has allowed Hunter to explore numerous materials and techniques and to push her art in many directions. “Lissa Hunter’s choice of materials is modest, yet impactful.  Raffia, paper, charcoal, clay, thread and an array of natural and found objects. These seemingly ordinary elements, devoid of intrinsic value or distinctive identity, serve as the foundation for her artistic process.Techniques such as coiling, drawing, hand building, sewing and mark making elevate these unassuming materials to a realm of significance,”explains Angela Truscott of FibreArts Take Two, in its recent video interview of Hunter.

1lh The Gathering, Lissa Hunter, eleven-piece nesting basket set with handmade elements, 7” x 16”, 1994.

In the 90s, Hunter would create coiled baskets, then coat them with handmade paper, apply acrylic medium, “age” them with watercolor, and add decorative elements. The result were baskets that resembled ancient artifacts. Janet Koplos and Bruce Metcalf, the authors of Makers: A History of American Studio Craft, observed thatHunter “was looking for spiritual embodiment, and Native American objects seemed a good model. But she labeled her borrowings, so to speak, by applying a tribal pattern in crochet so it was clear that she was quoting rather than copying the traditions.” The authors conclude that Hunter “demonstrates the satisfactions of making and repeating, the pleasures of materials and the symbolic importance of objects, charting a course between the Scylla of sentimentality and the Charybdis of illustration.”

lh The Gathering, Lissa Hunter, eleven-piece nesting basket set with handmade elements, 7” x 16”, 1994.

Hunter’s work can be found in the collections of the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin, and the de Young Museum, San Francisco, California, among others.

See works by Hunter — and 30+ other artists — at An Abundance of Objects, part of browngrotta arts’ Fall 2023 “Art in the Barn” exhibition, Vignettes: one venue; three exhibitions this October 7th through October 15th. Reserve a time to visit on Eventbrite.


Vignettes Opens This Week: An Abundance of Objects Opens this Week

An Abundance installation
An abundance of objects installation works by Mary Merkel-Hess, Lizzie Farey, Yashusia Kohyama, Polly Adams Sutton, Stéphanie Jacques, Mary Giles. Photo by Tom Grotta

We’ve found that objects — art, collectibles, mementos — contain magic. The right object in the right space has the power to prompt memories, evoke feelings, and exert a palpable energy on one’s surroundings. As Monica Khemsurov and Jill Singer, authors of How to Live With Objects: A Guide to More Meaningful Interiors (Clarkson Potter 2023), observe“It matters less whether your interior is perfectly appointed and more that it’s authentically personal, unique, and filled with the objects you feel a connection to …. Imbued with the stories of where they came from and why we chose them, our objects radiate meaning into our space, triggering us to remember, feel, or think while giving our guests a tangible sense of our personality.” 

An Abundance of Objects installation
Vignettes installation: Mary Merkel-Hess, Paul Furneaux, Toshiko Takaezu, Kogetsu Kosuge, Norma Minkowitz, Markku Kosonen, Simone Pheulpin. Photo by Tom Grotta

An Abundance of Objects (October 7 – 15, browngrotta arts, Wilton, CT) celebrates that power. In it we have combined an eclectic collection of sculptures, ceramics, baskets, and mixed media works that inspire awe, admiration, and, sometimes, sheer delight. Glowing wall-hung silk cubes by Kiyomi Iwata share the gallery with woven “quivers” by Gary Trentham,  a vessel of tickets from Karyl Sisson, an elegant, asymmetrical form of clay by Yasuhisa Kohyama, and a folded textile cast in bronze by Eduardo Portillo and Maria Dávila.  

An abundance of Objects installation
from left to right works by: Willa Rogers, Neil and Francina Prince, Karyl Sisson, Norie Hatekayama, Stéphanie Jacques. Photo by Tom Grotta

Dedicated to the meticulously crafted and conceived, browngrotta arts is a unique source for impactful objets d’art. We promote the work of more than 100 artists from 32 countries, Our curation is a partnership — every item exhibited by browngrotta arts has been approved by both co-curators. It must be a piece each co-curator wants to live with and which gives us a spark of enjoyment that we want to share with gallery visitors. We’ve found a receptive audience for this approach. “It’s about the juxtaposition,” designer Pina Manzone says of the works found here, “the yin and the yang, the hard and the soft. Modern design has the feel of the handmade but it’s smooth and organized. These objects are tactile.” 

clockwise: Noriko Takimaya, Naomi Kobayashi, Jin-Sook So. Photo by Tom Grotta

In An Abundance of Objects there is much to admire and desire. There are works that reference nature, like Norie Hatakeyama’s wall-hung Complex Plaiting Two-force, which resembles an organic item, like coral or honeycomb. There are works that pay homage to past techniques like Tim Johnson’s Wall Pocket, using an ancient techniques that pairs daubing earth, ashes, and natural resins on a woven structure, and Willa Rogers’s basket of coiled pine needles a technique used by Native Americans and others. Still others, including Stéphanie Jacques’s one-legged figure, reimagine the human form. 

There are dozens of objects in Abundance. We hope this grouping will further collecting narratives and, for some, unleash the transformative magic that objects contain.

Schedule your visit on Eventbrite.


Art Assembled – New This Week in September

As September draws to a close, we’re eager to take a look back at the remarkable artworks that have graced our New This Week series during the month. Our focus has been twofold: shining a spotlight on the exceptional talents of Chiyoko Tanaka, Karyl Sisson, Glen Kaufman, and Gary Trentham, while also diligently crafting the final details of our eagerly anticipated exhibition, Vignettes: one venue, three exhibitions.

The excitement has been steadily building as we prepare to unveil this exceptional amalgamation of artistic excellence. Vignettes will offer a trifecta of exhibitions featuring the masterful craftsmanship of wood sculptor Dorothy Gill Barnes, the visionary weaving and surface design of Glen Kaufman, and An Abundance of Objects, a captivating showcase featuring a diverse array of baskets, ceramics, and sculptures crafted by over three dozen talented artists.

Join us as we revisit the highlights from our New This Week features in September, and stay tuned for the grand reveal of Vignettes at browngrotta arts next week, where art and creativity converge in a breathtaking display.

Chiyoko Tanaka
Grinded Fabric #282, Chiyoko Tanaka, handwoven, ground fabric (raw linen, ramie) with brick in plexiglass frame, 41″ x 15.875″ x 2.5″, 1995-1996. Photo by Tom Grotta.

As we ventured into September, our New This Week series kicked off with an exploration of art from Chiyoko Tanaka. Originating from Japan, Tanaka’s journey through the realm of textiles has been nothing short of extraordinary. Her distinctive approach to weaving transforms the very act of creation into a profound meditation on the passage of time.

At the heart of Tanaka’s work lies the meticulous process of weaving, where each weft thread becomes a testament to the moments that have slipped by. Once the cloth is woven, she embarks on a ritualistic “grinding” process, where she rubs the fabric ceaselessly with tools like brick or white stone. This unique technique results in textures that convey not only her artistic prowess but also the essence of time itself.

In the world of contemporary Japanese textiles, Chiyoko Tanaka’s work stands as a testament to the captivating interplay of tradition and innovation. Her art invites us to delve into the very fabric of time and texture, and we are thrilled to have shared her remarkable creations this September.

Karyl Sisson
103ks Red Ticket Faux Pot, Karyl Sisson, paper tickets, 9″ x 7″ x 7″, 1997. Photo by Tom Grotta.

As September continued to unfold, our spotlight turned towards renowned artist Karyl Sisson. Hailing from Los Angeles, Sisson’s art is an enchanting interplay of tradition and modernity, a fusion of the ordinary and the extraordinary. For over three decades, she has masterfully woven together the fibers of everyday life, breathing new life into discarded materials.

Sisson’s creations are a testament to her ability to find beauty in the overlooked and underappreciated. In her hands, paper straws are transformed into intricate sculptures that echo the patterns of cells and organisms, giving birth to objects that seem to grow organically.

Beyond the surface, Sisson’s work delves into the heart of domesticity and traditional gender roles, inviting us to reconsider the significance of the everyday. Her art isn’t just a celebration of creativity; it’s a profound reflection on our interconnectedness with the materials that surround us.

As we explored Sisson’s captivating creations this September, we were reminded that art can be found in the most unexpected places, awaiting those with the vision to see it. You can see her work in An Abundance of Objects, part of this Fall’s “Art in the Barn” exhibition at browngrotta arts October 7 through the 15th.

Glen Kaufman
013, 027, 094gk Sumi Swish, Stripes and Kasuri by Glen Kaufman. Mixed media/washi, fabric collage
21” x 41” x 2.5” (each), 2010. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Up next, we were privileged to feature the remarkable works of the late, renowned artist Glen Kaufman. Kaufman’s artistic legacy, spanning over four decades, left an indelible mark on the world of surface design. His creations were not just artworks; they were intricate dances between texture, form, and visual storytelling.

Kaufman’s artistic odyssey began with textural weaving and macramé, but his restless creativity led him to explore uncharted territories in the realm of surface design. His innovative approach was a fusion of traditional techniques and contemporary sensibilities, creating sculptural forms that challenged the boundaries of artistic expression. His later works, adorned with photo collages and the application of gold and silver leaf, reflected a profound connection with Japanese aesthetics and architecture, showcasing the global influence on his artistry.

As we celebrated Kaufman’s contributions this September, we were reminded that true artistry knows no boundaries of time or place. We’re honored to continue his legacy by featuring his art in our upcoming exhibition, Glen Kaufman: Elegant Eloquence and of three exhibitions that make up Vignettes!

Gary Trentham
2gt Untitled, Gary Trentham, wood fiber, 9″ x 11″ x 11″. Photo by Tom Grotta.

As we conclude our artistic journey through September, we pay tribute to the late Gary Trentham, a luminary in the realm of woven textiles and fiber sculptures. Trentham’s artistic roots ran deep, nurtured by a childhood fascination with textiles that would later become his creative muse.

Trentham’s distinctive path to artistic prominence is a testament to his passion and dedication. His baskets, with their quiver-like forms, challenged the conventional perception of textiles and sculpture. Trentham’s artistry was a symphony of form and function, where fabric became a malleable medium for his boundless imagination.

We look forward to featuring Trentham’s extraordinary creations in our upcoming exhibition, The Art of Abundance, one of three exhibitions in Vignettes.

As we close the chapter on September, we eagerly turn the pages to October, where our upcoming exhibition, Vignettes, awaits. We hope to see you all there!


Vignettes at browngrotta arts in October: Who’s New? Joe Feddersen

We are excited to be exhibiting two basketworks by Joe Feddersen in our upcoming exhibition An Abundance of Objects (October 7-18). 

Joe Feddersen's Agressive Attitude and Roll Call Baskets
1-2jfe Agressive Attitude, 2020, Roll Call, 2018, Feddersen,, twined wax linen, 10 x 5.75″ x 5.75″; 5.25″ x 4.5″ x 4.5″. Photo by Tom Grotta

Fedderson is a widely known, highly respected, multimedia artist and member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. His fine art prints, paintings, baskets, glass vessels, installations, and photography, are found in several prominent museum collections, including, that of the National Museum of the American Indian. He is one of six artists featured in Sharing Honors and Burdens at the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian through next March. The works in the Shared Honors and Burdens exhibition are culturally specific, yet communicate across cultural boundaries, weaving together stories of resilience, heritage, and shared experiences. 

Feddersen’s work has been featured in several solo and group exhibitions, and has been written about in a number of essays, catalogs, and books including a major retrospective and monograph titled Vital Signs at the Missoula Museum in Montana in 2008. “Arising from Plateau Indian iconographic interpretations of the human-environment relationship, Curator Rebecca J. Dobkins wrote in the exhibition notes, “Feddersen’s prints, weavings, and glass sculptures explore the relationships between contemporary urban place markers and indigenous design.” From the artist’s perspective, she says, Plateau basketweaving designs have resulted from generations of people living on the land and interpreting their relationship with the land through abstraction.

Detail Joe Feddersens aggressive attitude
Detail: 1jfe Aggressive Attitude, Feddersen, twined wax linen, 10 x 5.75″ x 5.75″, 2020. Photo by Tom Grotta

As he continued developing his Plateau Geometrics series, which was featured in Vital Signs, Feddersen decided he needed a fuller understanding of basketry and began learning from his friend Elizabeth Woody, an artist and poet who was a student of weaving. He returned to the Colville Reservation and talked, too, with renowned weaver Elaine Timentwa Emerson about basket designs. Dobkins writes, “For Feddersen, her assertion that design meaning was deeply rooted in location stood out above all else. In other words, the meaning of designs depends upon who the interpreter is and where he or she is from — a very local form of indigenous exegesis. To someone else, in the next valley, the same design may have a different meaning.” 

Feddersen has spoken about imagery he uses. In, Roll Call he told Cecile Ganteaume in his interview for the Archives of American Art (Oral history interview with Joe Feddersen, 2021 April 29 and May 6. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution) the imagery “is about the world around us” like “just stopping and thinking about what’s around you.” He cites a poem by William E. Stafford, called “Tracks.” The poet was on a train and saying, “Who’s around us?” On a fresh snow, you would see the tracks. And he would say, like, “Fox is here,” and so on. To Feddersen, it was “kind of who has survived.” And so he created the uniquely modern figures in Roll Call. “[W]e have like a television person here, and an android,” he said ,… “kind of a narrative about who’s here. And it also makes me think of those high school pictures, where they have the class pictures.”

Detail Joe Feddersens Roll Call
Detail: 2jfe Roll Call (small), Joe Feddersen, twined wax linen, 5.25″ x 4.5″ x 4.5″, 2018. Photo by Tom Grotta

You can see Small Roll Call in person at An Abundance of Objects at browngrotta arts October 7 through 15. Schedule your visit here

Can’t make the exhibition? You can see the works in the An Abundance of Objects catalog, available at browngrotta.com.


Vignettes is Less Than a Month Away: Who’s New? Kogetsu Kosuge and Aya Kajiwara

In our upcoming An Abundance of Objects exhibition (part of Vignettes: one venue, three exhibitions) October 7 – 15, we are pleased to include work by two well-known Japanese basketmakers, Aya Kajiwara and Kogetsu Kosuge.

Kogetsu Kosuge and Aya Kajiwara bamboo baskets
1kko Circular Flower Basket, Kogetsu Kosuge, bamboo, 17.5″ x 5″ x 3.75″, 2000’s; 1ka Spiral Pattern Basket, Aya Kajiwara, bamboo, 8″ x 11″ x 11″, 2007. Photo by Tom Grotta

In 2000, Aya Kajiwara became the first woman admitted as a full member of the Japan Art Crafts Association. She attended the Beppu Occupational School, the foremost art school with a bamboo curriculum, studying with teachers who themselves were pupils of Living National Treasure artists (those certified as “Preservers of Important Intangible Cultural Properties”). Kajiwara’s work follows the tradition of the hanakago, baskets made for holding flower arrangements for special ceremonial ikebana. In Ikebana, these baskets are viewed as sculptures, rather than utilitarian objects. Many of her titles allude to landscape or parts of nature. Her works are composed of very narrow splits of bamboo, Kajiwara’s work has been included in the prestigious Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition several times. 

Kogetsu Kosuge bamboo basket detail
1kko Circular Flower Basket Detail, Kogetsu Kosuge, bamboo, 17.5″ x 5″ x 3.75″, 2000’s. Photo by Tom Grotta

Kogetsu Kosuge, who died in 2016, was the son of Chikudo Kosuge, a well-known bamboo artist on the Island of Sado. As a boy, Kogetsu spent many hours in his father’s studio learning bamboo basketry. In 1972, the Niigata Governor commissioned the artist to create a basket as a gift to the Emperor of Japan and six years later he became a full member of the Japan Craft Art Association.

Aya Kajiwara bamboo basket detail
1ka Spiral Pattern Basket, Aya Kajiwara, bamboo, 8″ x 11″ x 11″, 2007. Photo by Tom Grotta

He primarily uses three techniques, hineri or twisted bamboo, the pine-needle pattern called matsuba-ami and masame-wari, in which lateral cuts are used to make narrow strips of bamboo. The artist told Tai Arts in 2009, that In each piece, he tries “to reflect my deeply held spiritual feelings and beliefs.” Among his prestigious awards are the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Prize at Japan’s Flower and Tea Ware Art Exhibition and the Niigata Nippo Prize at the 16th Prefectual Art Exhibition. 

See works by Kajiwara and Kogetsu — and many more — at An Abundance of Objects, part of browngrotta arts’ Fall 2023 “Art in the Barn” exhibition, Vignettes: one venue; three exhibitions this October 7th through October 15th. Reserve a time on Eventbrite. You can also order the catalog for An Abundance of Objects from our website: browngrotta.comhttps://store.browngrotta.com/an-abundance-of-objects/, after October 6, 2023. 


Vignettes is Less Than a Month Away – What’s New? Ceramics by Karen Karnes Join Works by Toshiko Takaezu and Yasuhisa Kohyama

In An Abundance of Objects, this October 7th through the 15th, browngrotta arts will present a truly diverse group of eclectic engaging objects. Among them will be a series of ceramics by artists regularly shown at browngrotta, Toshiko Takeazu and Yasuhisa Kohyama, and two works by new-to-the-gallery artist Karen Karnes.

1kka Green-Lidded Vessel, Karen Karnes, salt-glazed stoneware, 10″ x 14″ x 14″, 1980’s. Photo by Tom Grotta

Karen Karnes is known for her functional, yet elegant forms — wheel-thrown pieces, salt-glazed pottery, cut-lidded vessels.  “Karen Karnes was a singular, powerful artistic voice in American studio pottery. She was the rare woman who was self-supported as a potter with no institutional affiliation,” wrote the New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana which has collected the artist’s work. Karnes attended Brooklyn College and graduated with a major in design. She studied ceramics practice in Italy, then returned to Alfred University in New York and began a graduate program in ceramics. She left to do a two-year residency at Black Mountain College, where she worked and studied alongside artists John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada, Josef Albers, and Peter Voulkos. In 2020, the ASU Art Museum Ceramics Research Center recognized the artist’s extraordinary life’s work in the ceramic arts with a retrospective of her work. “Karnes has been a major influence on contemporary ceramic artists,” the museum wrote, “her creative vision spans more than 50 years of artistic excellence.”

Toshiko Takaezu glazed stoneware. Photo by Tom Grotta

At browngrotta arts we have been honored to exhibit the work of Toshiko Takaezu and Yasuhisa Kohyama for some time. Takaezu was an accomplished ceramist whose work has reached a new level of international prominence in recent years. Her work was featured in the prestigious Venice Biennial in 2022. The exhibition wrote that the Hawaiian artist’s skill in the art of ceramics was honed during an extended visit to Japan on which she explored her cultural roots. “Whether larger than a person or small enough to hold in one’s palm, her wheel-thrown or hand-shaped works from the 1960s on are rounded, richly decorated, hollow objects resembling ordinary pots but not intended to hold anything. Takaezu’s elongated or spherical works almost completely enclose an empty space that is inaccessible to the gaze and, like a soul in a body, makes them unique. Even when installed in groups, as in her series …, each preserves its own totemic identity.”  The artist’s will be featured in the upcoming, Toshiko Takaezu: Shaping Abstraction, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, and in a large-scale touring retrospective (and catalog) organized by The Isamu Noguchi Museum and Garden Museum in Long Island City, New York in 2024. An Abundance of Objects, will include four of Takeazu’s work. 

55yk Hajibito, Yasuhisa Kohyama, ceramic, 15.5″ x 10″ x 6″, 2023. Photo by Tom Grotta

Yasuhisa Kohyama’s masterful ceramics are inspired by the ancient Shigaraki, Jomon, and Yayoi ceramics of Japan. Kohyama has played a significant part in reviving the use of the traditional Japanese anagama wood-firing kiln. He was the first potter in his area to build such a kiln since the Middle Ages. Using the distinctive Shigaraki clay and a wood-firing kiln, he has created modern ceramic vessels and sculpture, which are vigorous and new, but timeless in their beauty. Kohyama shapes his asymmetrical forms using a piano string, thereby creating distinctive, rough surfaces. The clay with its nuggets of feldspar creates a tactile quality not often seen in contemporary work. No glazes are used, but the wood ash and the placement in the kiln produce an extraordinary array of colors and shading on the surface. In the Abundance exhibition, browngrotta arts will highlight Hajibito a new work by Kohyama.

See works by Karnes, Takaezu, and Kohyama — and 30+ other artists – at An Abundance of Objects, part of browngrotta arts’ Fall 2023 “Art in the Barn” exhibition, Vignettes: one venue; three exhibitions this October 7th through October 15th. Schedule your visit on Eventbrite.