Summertime and the living is easy … We’ve always loved that song by DuBose Heyward and George Gershwin. It’s not quite easier at browngrotta arts as we have lots of preparation to do for our upcoming fall exhibition and next year’s 40th anniversary celebration, but the pace is a little slower. We spend more time with family and friends and fishing in Maine with art projects in between.
Even if leisurely, life goes on, and we still have plenty of news to share.
The Loewe Craft Foundation Awards for 2026 were presented. Through its Craft Prize, the Loewe Foundation seeks to acknowledge and support international artisans over 18, of any gender who demonstrate an exceptional ability to create objects of superior aesthetic value. By identifying work that “reinterprets existing knowledge to make it relevant today while reflecting its maker’s personal language and distinct hand,” the Foundation aims to “highlight the continuing contribution of craft to the culture of our time.” Two of the artists that work with browngrotta arts were on the short list — Gjertrud Hals of Norway and Misako Nakahira of Japan. They join several other artists that browngrotta arts promotes who have made the shortlist in years past— Mercedes Vincente, Polly Adams Sutton, Yeonsoon Chang, Ferne Jacobs, and Simone Pheulpin, who was also awarded an honor prize. Separately, Loewe has worked with Jiro Yonezawa and Kay Sekimachi to create designs for products for the legendary leather goods retailer.
This summer saw Museum Acquisition action: This Old House by James Bassler will join the permanent collection at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. This Old House was featured in the Museum’s recent exhibition, America 250: Common Threads. The adoption of a second work of art by another artist is in progress at a separate major US museum. The last 12 months have seen more acquisition activity. Last August, Bowl with Black Centre, by Dail Behennah was acquired by the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. In November, Lia Cook’s Su Series was acquired by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Neha Puri Dhir’s work Transition, was acquired by the John and Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. In January, four works of wearable art by Norma Minkowitz joined the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California.
Artists who work with browngrotta arts are featured in a number of Exhibitions in Canada, China, Europe, and the US. Jane Balsgaard’s work is on exhibit at the Vrå Exhibition in the Art Building-Engelund Museum in Vrå, Denmark (through August 30th). Jeannet Leendertse is part of Water Proof: Maine Artists Reflect on their Environment, at the Wendell Gilley Museum in Southwest Harbor, Maine (through August 22nd). In Montreal, Canada, Mariette-Rousseau Vermette’s, Micheline Beauchemin’s, and Young-Ok Shin’s works are featured in Plot at the Baie-Saint-Paul Museum of Contemporary Art (through September 6th). The work of Eduardo Portillo and María Dávila is included in See You Tomorrow Under Other Skies at the Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York City (through September 12th, with a summer break in August. Check hours). Gjertrud Hals’s work is part of the
Personal Structures exhibition at the Palazzo Mora in Venice, Italy (through November 22nd). Simone Pheulpin’s work is in Intertwined Breath: Contemporary Fiber Narratives at the Taoxichuan Gallery in Jingdexhen, China (through November 25th). And, opening on August 25th, is a retrospective of Mary Merkel-Hess’s work at the Brunnier Art Museum, Ames, Iowa (through January 31, 2027).
The fourth edition of the Homo Faber Biennial is titled An Island of Light and runs from September 1 – 30, 2026 at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on San Giorgio Maggiore Island in Venice, Italy. Curated by the Michelangelo Foundation with artistic direction by Es Devlin, the event explores the relationship between light, materials, and the human hand. A number of artists who work with browngrotta arts will be part of the Biennial including Jiro Yonezawa, Christine Joy, Jennifer Zurick, Nancy Moore Bess, Simone Pheulpin, Polly Adams Sutton, and Gyöngy Laky. Homo Faber also maintains an online platform
dedicated to craftsmanship that provides profiles of artisans worldwide.
In June, we served as Jurors for Make/Shift, an exhibition at the Crown Gallery, Metro Art Studios in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Artists were asked to submit work that “explores the space where material, process, and intention converge — grounded in techniques and materials traditionally associated with functional craft—ceramics, fiber, glass, wood, basketry, and other hand-based practices—reimagined through a fine art lens.” We reviewed more than 150 entries and selected over two dozen intriguing works — of glass, ceramics, jewelry, metal — but a preponderance of the entries were works of fiber. The exhibition will run from August 9th to September 19th.
Much of our summer has been spent on October Exhibition Planning. In Continental Drift: Encounters, North and South (October 17 – 25), we will explore art from North and South America from two different vantage points. First, we are gathering works by significant artists from the US, Canada, Chile, Venezuela, and Colombia, including Sheila Hicks, Lenore Tawney, and Carolina Yrarrázaval) many of whom are not just representative of their own countries but have a connection to other regions as well. Second, we will include work by artists from in and outside North and South America who cite art, artists, or experiences from these continents as an influence. We’ve been receiving deliveries from new artists from Argentina and Mexico, and viewed compelling works that artists created after a pilgrimage to another country or a study of an artist from elsewhere. And we’ve been in correspondence with Sarah Parrish, Associate Professor of Art History at Plymouth University, who’ll be writing the catalog essay for Continental Drift.
Hope you, too, are having a great summer!
