Tag: Dorothy Gill Barnes

Woven Histories Highlights – National Gallery, Washington, DC

July 10, 2024 0 Comment
Woven Histories Entrance
Entrance to Woven Histories, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Photo by Tom Grotta.

During our recent trip to Washington, DC we visited Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction, through July 28, 2024 at the National Gallery. We are not going to pout about the fact that it has taken a few decades for contemporary fiber art to make it into the hallowed halls of the National Gallery. We are just going to revel in this expansive textile coming out party — an exhibition that challenges, however belatedly, the hierarchies that often separate textiles from fine arts.

Woven Histories Installation
Installation view: Work by Ruth Asawa, Kay Sekimachi and Martin Puryear. Photo by Tom Grotta.

The 150 objects in Woven Histories highlight a diverse range of transnational and intergenerational artists who have shaped the field including: Ruth Asawa, Anni Albers, Lenore Tawney, Kay Sekimachi, Sheila Hicks, Rosemarie Trockel, and Diedrick Brackens. There are also painters and sculptors like Agnes Martin and Eva Hesse whose work also played a role in modern abstraction. 

Ed Rossbach
Ed Rossbach, Constructed Color Wall Hanging, 1965. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Curated by Lynne Cooke, the exhibition offers “a fresh and authoritative look at textiles — particularly weaving — as a major force in the evolution of abstraction.” Basketry is given prominence. Cook notes in the book that accompanies the exhibition, Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction, that basketry was a moribund artform in the mid-60s, when Ed Rossbach began his “[s]triving for expressive content, signification and meaning” within basketry’s time-tested techniques. The exhibition highlights others creating basket referents, including John McQueen, Dorothy, Gill Barnes, Martin Puryear, and Yvonne Koolmatrie.

Shan Goshorn
Shan Goshorn Baskets. Photo by Tom Grotta.

There are more than 50 artists whose work is included. The timeline is expansive — beginning with work created during World War I by Sophie Taeuber-Arp of the Zurich Dada circle, and continuing through to 21st century efforts to create community and celebrate the politics of identity by such artists as Ann Hamilton, Liz Collins, and Jeffrey Gibson. The exhibition will travel next to the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, from November 8, 2024–March 2, 2025 and then the Museum of Modern Art, New York, April 20–September 13, 2025. 

Agnes Martin
Agnes Martin, Untitled, oil on canvas, 1960. Photo by Tom Grotta.

A Pop-Up is a Good Op

March 6, 2024 0 Comment
Two Vermettes, Two offices
Claude Vermette’s water color Maligne Lake, 1979 and Mariette Rousseau-Vermette’s tapestry Electricity/Energy, 1994. Photo by Tom Grotta

If Wikipedia is to be believed, Pop-Up art exhibitions began in 2007 in New York City. They now occur all over they world. Pop-ups are generally temporary events, less formal than a gallery or a museum, often using unusual spaces. Their popularity has boomed since the oughts, including Banksy’s Dismaland which collected work by 58 artists in a rundown seaside town in the UK in 2015, Yasoi Kusama’s room that exploded with flowers in Melbourne, Australia in 2018, the Museum of Ice Cream (not technically a museum) currently in several locations including Miami, Boston and Singapore, and The Color Factory in New York City, Houston, and Chicago. Pop-Ups are often immersive, interactive, and collaborative like Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, which began in 2008 as a small collective of artists sharing an interest in publicly displaying their works and developing their skills. Meow Wolf now aims to “redefine the paradigm of art and storytelling to make a positive difference in the world.”

Out of Focus Series by Grethe Sørensen
White Shell Tongue I & II, 2006 prints by Federica Luzzi and Out of Focus tapestries by Grethe Sørensen, 2007. Photo by Tom Grotta

Fast forward to 2024: browngrotta arts has its own Pop-Up of sorts at JUICE Creative Group in Norwalk, CT. JUICE handles our social media, website development, event planning and other miscellany. It has loads of clients coming into its business and rental studio space each week. Now, select Juice visitors are able to view (and acquire) JUICE Art, a specially assembled group of works from artists who work with browngrotta arts.

Warren Seelig installation
Warren Seelig’s White Wheel, 1996 and Small Double Ended, 1996. Photo by Tom Grotta

In curating the collection, we were mindful of the JUICE ethos. It’s a brand and digital agency based in the US, with team members all over the world. JUICE takes pride in the team of brand experts, designers, marketers and tech geeks it’s built, and the vibrant creative culture it has fostered. To reflect that creativity and energy, we suggested works like Grethe Sorensen’s Out of Focus that references pixels from printing, Warren Seelig’s mechanical sculptures, Small Double-Ended and White Wheel, Gyöngy Laky’s playful Beach Sketch, made of electrical tape wrapped branches and Electricity/Energy by Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, a tapestry that incorporates wire.

Sekiji, Laky and Seelig in the corner office
From left to right works by Toshio Sekiji, NYT Collage, 1997, Gyöngy Laky, Beach Sketch, 1987, Warren Seelig, Shadowfield/ Colored Light Single, 2017. Photo by Tom Grotta

Printed pages are another theme; the agency produces a lot of textual content. There are collages made of books and newspapers by Toshio Sekiji; works by Wendy Wahl of encyclopedia pages, and an interesting work by Mercedes Vicente that mixes string and spiral notebook pages and “hints” at writing. Photography, too, was a theme. In a room clients use, we placed a textile triptych made of photo images of Japanese tile roofs that are fragmented, silk screened, and metal-leafed made by Glen Kaufman along with works of paper by Gizella Warburton. On a floor of offices, there are photographs of fiber sculptures by Federica Luzzi, White Shell Tongue 1 and 2 beside a graphic tapestry by Gudrun Pagter.

John McQueen in the conference room
In the conference room, Intimate Domain, 2019 by John McQueen

In deciding what to display, we also collaborated with the JUICE team, including some works by artists they chose. John McQueen is a favorite of several team members. We included Intimate Domain, which includes a tree made of repurposed plastic surrounded by a frame made of small branches and cable ties and also Treed, a depiction of a tree where the drawing creeps off the page an onto the frame. Another popular artist was Canadian painter and ceramist Claude Vermette. There are two of his large canvases, one triptych and one small water color hung throughout the space. Also on the team’s list, works by Keiji Nio, Jo Barker, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Jiro Yonezawa, Chiyoko Tanaka and Jennifer Falck Linssen.

Claude Vermette and Gudren Pageter
Claude Vermette. Clairière, 1992 painting, Gudren Pagter, Thin Green Line , 2017 tapestry, Toshio Sekiji, Black Collage, 1998. Photo by Tom Grotta

For us, a Pop-Up is a Good Op. The JUICE space looks better, clients and staff appreciate the work, and we get more eyeballs for some great works of art!

Presents With Presence – an artful gift guide

December 5, 2023 0 Comment
Jin-Sook So gold boxes
54jss Black 15 Boxes, Jin-Sook So, steel mesh, electroplated gold, gold leaf, painted acrylic and patinated thread, 43″ × 65″ × 3″, 2016. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Out of ideas for the ideal gift for a cherished friend or family member? Consider a work of art. It will make an indelible impression. In its Guide to Giving Art as a Gift, DecktheWalls.com notes “Even for the person who has everything, a piece of artwork makes an amazing gift. It shows forethought, effort and a flair for gift giving. Art is a wonderful gift for any occasion, whether it is for Christmas or Hanukkah, a baby shower, a wedding or thank you gift.” 

Glass Hand by Dorothy Gill Barnes
83dgb In Hand, Dorothy Gill Barnes, cherry wood, cast glass (glass by Ohio State University department of art students), 7” x 7” x 3.5”, 2000s-2010s. Photo by Tom Grotta
Small Bamboo Vase
104jy Black Laybug, Jiro Yonezawa, bamboo, glass, kiribako box, 6.5″ x 4.75″ x 5″, 2021 (Box 7.25″ x 5.5″ x 5.5″). Photo by Tom Grotta
Small woven silk Glen Kaufman weaving
040gk Kyoto Kawara IV, Glen Kaufman, yarn-dyed woven silk, copper leaf, 15″ x 14″ x 2.5″, 1995. Photo by Tom Grotta.

The benefits of viewing art are well documented — looking at art stimulates the brain and puts our innate knack for organizing patterns and making sense of shapes to use. In addition, viewing art boosts our mood. Looking at a painting, sculpture, or other artwork increases blood flow to the brain by as much as 10% — the equivalent of looking at someone you love. Choosing an art gift is an effective way to say, “Your well-being matters to me.”

small Sue Lawty weaving
30sl Tacitum II, Sue Lawty, hemp and linen on cotton warp, 11.75” x 8.5” x 1″, 2022. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Here are some suggestions for one-of-kind items that may be just what you are looking for.

Jennifer Falck Linssen hand carved paper sculpture
9jl Arezzo, Jennifer Falck Linssen, Katagami-style handcarved archival cotton paper, aluminum, waxed linen, paint, and varnish, 6.5″ x 30″ x 9″, 2011. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Some come with their own boxes. We can wrap your gift if you order it this week.

Hideho Tanaka collage drawing
31ht Emerging 008, Hideho Tanaka, Japanese carbon ink drawing, inkjet print, collage cotton cloth, Japanese tissue paper, 14.5” x 18.325” x 1.25,” 2016. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Table Topping

November 16, 2023 0 Comment
Christine Joy Willow boat basket
44cj Boat Becoming a River, Christine Joy, willow, beeswax, damar resin, 13.625″ x 30″ x 8.5″, 2018. Photo by Tom Grotta

The holiday season is upon us. Beginning with Diwali, winding its way through Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, and probably others, we’ll arrive at the promise of a New Year. We wish you many celebrations, satisfying meet-ups with family and friends, and moments of cozy comfort and joy over the next few weeks.

Deborah Valoma wire vessels
20dv Clytemnestra (Undone), Deborah Valoma, copper wire, woven, patinated, unwoven, wound, series of 5 balls 6″ x 6″ to 12″ x 12,” 2001. Photo by Tom Grotta
Mary Giles copper and linen centerpiece
27mg Black Profile, Mary Giles, waxed linen, copper, copper wire, 12.75″ x 31.25″ x 6.5″, 2002. Photo by Tom Grotta

Many of those festivities will include food and drink and maybe games and they’ll take place around a table. On many of those tables there will be a centerpiece of some kind — flowers, candles, and often a work of art. In that spirit, we present several artworks that can grace a a table as well as a pedestal or shelf.

Yasuhisa Kohyama Ceramic
11yk Ceramic 11, Yasuhisa Kohyama, ceramic, 15.7″ x 14.5″ x 4.7″ , 2001. Photo by Tom Grotta
Rachel Max plaited Red sculpture
12rm Balance, Rachel Max, plaited and twined cane, 12″ x 16″ x 9″, 2022. Photo by Tom Grotta

A browngrotta arts, we’ve been considering the transformative power of objects all Fall, their capacity to invoke memory and meaning. Our An Abundance of Objects exhibition can be seen in a Viewing Room on Artsy beginning November 22nd. Like those in The Domestic Plane: a New Perspective on Tabletop Art at the Aldrich Museum in 2019, the items in Abundance celebrate “the hand as means of creation, a formal frame of reference, and for the viewer, a source of both delight and tension …” And sometimes, they enhance our lives just by being beautiful. We wish you a season of as much beauty as you can muster.

Dorothy Gill Barnes glass and wood sculpture
38dgb Hackberry Dendroglyph, Dorothy Gill Barnes, hackberry dendroglyph, glass, 12″ x 27″ x 12″, 2007. Photo by Tom Grotta
Norma Minkowitz boy riding bird
99nm Unbound, Norma Minkowitz, mixed media fiber, 18.5” x 23” x 17”, 2022. Photo by Tom Grotta

A Trio of Catalogs from browngrotta arts

November 9, 2023 0 Comment
Vignettes Catalog set

This year, we published three catalogs in conjunction with our Fall exhibition, Vignettes: one venue; three exhibitions. Plus our Spring catalog, that makes four for the year — perhaps a bit ambitious. but the subjects were well worth it. Here’s a look at the three most recent volumes, now available on our website.

Catalog #M4 Glen Kaufman Retrospective 1960-2010 catalog cover

Our comprehensive Glen Kaufman catalog, Glen Kaufman: Retrospective 1960 to 2010, contains more than 90 images of work created over a 50-year period. Kaufman had a remarkable and varied career as a commercial designer, exhibiting artist, and educator. It included study, teaching and administraion at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, a Fulbright in Denmark, work at Dorothy Liebes’ studio in New York City, study trips to the UK and many years managing the fiber program at the University of Georgia, where he spent half of each year in the University’s study program in Japan. The catalog includes examples of work across these years including macramés and double weaves from the early years, remarkable photo-fabric weavings made with metallic inks, and collages of kimono shapes made with fabrics Kaufman found at flea markets in Japan. Also featured in the Glen Kaufman catalog, is an essay by Ashley Callahan and independent scholar an author of Crafting History: Textiles, Metals, and Ceramics at the University of Georgia. Callahan writes that, During a career as a craftsman and teacher that spanned nearly six decades, [Kaufman] developed a knowledge of the history of techniques, mastery of techniques, and distinct artistic voice that earned him extensive renown.” 

CAT #M5 Dorothy Gill Barnes a way with wood catalog cover

Dorothy Gill Barnes: a way with wood is also photo-rich. This volume includes works that reflect many of the techniques she mastered and innovations she pioneered. There are works involving woven bark and folded bark, works in which she used power tools, and works incorporating glass blown by students at Ohio State University. There are also examples of “dendroglyphs,” works including bark that Gill harvested from trees that she had scarred months or years before. The catalog includes quotes from several observers of Barnes’ work, including Ann Hamilton. Readers will also find an essay by Ann Bremner a writer and editor who worked with Barnes for many years. Barnes’ environmentalism was longstanding and deeply felt, Bremner writes, “… the messages infused in her art are subtle and nuanced, guided by traditions that emphasize respect and shared responsibility for the world we live in.”

CAT #52 An Abundance of Objects catalog cover

The volume promising an abundance of objects does not disappoint. An Abundance of Objects provides images of 80 intriguing objects, highlighting their appeal and attraction. These items have been made by more than 30 artists from the UK, US, Korea, Finland, Japan, Belgium, Norway, Venezuela, Canada, France, and New Zealand. Rhonda Brown added a short introduction noting the impact collecting has on clients and the desire collectors have for the handmade. “We’ve had our fill of disposable culture,” she quotes gallerist and collector Collier Calandruccio. “and people are looking for that human connection, seeing the hand in things.” The objects in Abundance are all that, intimate, engaging and each individually made.

Catalog spread from Glen Kaufman: Retrospective 1960-2010. Photo by Tom Grotta.

You’ll find all three catalogs at browngrotta.com. You can purchase the three Vignettes catalogs as a bundle and save $15. 

catalog spread from #M5 Dorothy Gill Barnes catalog
Gary Trentham Spread from An Abundance of Objects

Art Out and About: Exhibitions Here and Abroad

October 25, 2023 0 Comment

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 Rossbach, Katherine Westphal, Anni Albers, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Kay Sekimachi, Lenore 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!

Save the Date: Vignettes at browngrotta arts is Two Months Away

August 9, 2023 0 Comment

If one art exhibition is good, three exhibitions must be outstanding. That’s the theory that undergirds Vignettes; one venue, three exhibitions, browngrotta arts’ Fall Art in the Barn event in Wilton, Connecticut. From  October 7 to October 15, 2023, the gallery will offer two rooms celebrating the work of renowned weaver, surface designer, and educator Glen Kaufman, two rooms devoted to noted basketmaker and sculptor Dorothy Gill Barnes and two additional rooms featuring objects — baskets, sculptures, ceramics — by three dozen international artists.

Glen Kaufman exhibition installation. Photo by Tom Grotta

Glen Kaufman’s art experience and influences were extensive — studying, then teaching, at Cranbrook Academy of Art, a Fulbright Scholarship in Denmark, a year as a designer in Dorothy Liebes’ New York studio, and study visits to the UK.  He landed at the University of Georgia where he headed the fiber program for 20+ years, spending one-half of each year in Japan for much of that time. The work in Glen Kaufman: Elegant Eloquence, dates from the 1960s through the 2020s. It includes double weaves, macramé works, and a freestanding cylindrical form from the 60s, collages, and works of indigo, shibori, and gold leaf on paper. Several of the works Kaufman created using a Japanese technique to apply gold and silver leaf atop intricately woven damask fabric, often in a grid, to reflect disappearing Japanese architecture will be displayed. Janet Koplos and Bruce Metcalf in Makers: A History of American Studio Craft (2010) describe Kaufman’swoven and printed work from Japan as “a concept and creation entirely his own.” Both through imagery and construction, these works combine East and West. 

Dorothy Gill Barnes exhibition installation. Photo by Tom Grotta

The works in Dorothy Gill Barnes: a Way With Wood, illustrate the full range of the artist’s engaging and innovative approach to natural materials. A Way With Wood contains several dozen works from the Barnes’ personal collection including early experiments in weaving bark and other materials. There are also “dendroglyphs” made from bark that Barnes had marked on living trees and later harvested after scars had formed, and later works in which wood and glass were combined in intriguing ways. 

Abundance of Objects installation: Mary Merkel-Hess, Gary Trentham, Gertud Hals. Photo by Tom Grotta

An Abundance of Objects, filling another two rooms, presents an eclectic collection of items of varied materials and techniques. Citing the authors of How to Live with Objects, Monica Khemsurov and Jill Singer, the exhibition encourages viewers to think about their connection to the objects that surround them — how they were discovered and made and the associations they arouse, meanings they radiate and feelings they trigger. Included are silk squares by Kiyomi Iwata, a mechanical, segmented “tree” that collapses and then stands with the turn of a crank by Lawrence LaBianca, woven “quivers” by Gary Trentham, and a sculpture made from a textile cast in bronze by Eduardo Portillo and Mariá Davilá.  

Here is the complete list of artists whose work we expect to include: Dail Behennah (UK), Hisako Sekijima (JP), Tim Johnson (UK), Polly Sutton (US), Stéphanie Jacques (BE), Judy Mulford (US), Gizella Warburton (UK), Mary Merkel-Hess (US), Simone Pheulpin (FR), Lawrence LaBianca (US), Lizzie Farey (UK), Joe Feddersen (US), Toshiko Takeazu (US), Gary Trentham (US), Nancy Koenigsberg (US); Markku Kosonen (FI), Tamiko Kawata (US), Christine Joy (US), Kosuge Kogetsu (JP), Kajiwara Aya (JP), Kyomi Iwata (US), Katherine Westphal (US), Dona Look (US), John McQueen (US), Jiro Yonezawa (JP), Gyöngy Laky (US), Noriko Takimaya (JP), Gertrud Hals (NO), Jeannet Leenderste (US), Naomi Kobayashi (JP), Karyl Sisson (US), Willa Rogers (NZ), Neil and Fran Prince (US), Jin-Sook So (KO), Lewis Knauss (US), Dawn Walden (US), and Keiji Nio (JP).

Catalogs will be published for each of the three exhibitions and can be ordered from browngrotta arts in October. The Opening & Artist Reception for Vignettes: one venue; three exhibitions will take place on October 7th from 11 -6. Reservations for the exhibition can be made on Eventbrite.

See you then!

Then and Now … works across time

May 17, 2023 0 Comment

In compiling works for our Spring 2023 exhibition, Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists, we gathered works from several decades. Many of those included were artists with longstanding careers. They were pioneers, active in the early days of the fiber movement and still innovating today. At browngrotta arts, we have always sought to exhibit artists who are willing to experiment — push boundaries, reinvent themselves and the medium. Acclaim! offered many fascinating examples of artists whose work transformed throughout their careers.

Cherry Ys, Dorothy Gill Barnes, waxed linen, raffia, and cherry branches, 31.25″ x 15″ x 3.5″, 1970-1980.
Willow with Log, Dorothy Gill Barnes, willow, 40″ x 20″ x 15″, 1998. Photos by Tom Grotta.

In some cases, like Dorothy Gill Barnes’ work, a logical progression from earlier to current work is apparent. Cherry Ys is a study that Barnes had created when more traditional weaving was a larger part of her process. Some 30 years later she created Willow with Log — weaving again, but this time with a material she has mastered — tree bark. 

The Mourners, Dominic Di Mare, waxed linen, wood, (Back row from left to right: 48.5″ x 24″; 46″ x 24″; 50.5″ x 24″; 47″ x 24″) Front row from left to right: 49.5″ x 24″ ; 46.5″ x 24″; 48.5″ x 24″).
Mourning Station #4, Dominic Di Mare, hawthorn, handmade paper, silk, bone, bird’s egg, feathers, gold and wood beads, 13″ x 7″ x 7″, 1981. Photos by Tom Grotta.

Dominic Di Mare is widely known for captivating sculptures of simple materials like carved hawthorn branches with delicate feathers, beads, paper, eggs, and horsehair. In Di Mare’s hands, these were transformed into intensely poetic and spiritual works which he made in the 79s. For Acclaim!, however, we were able to show Di Mare’s intriguing assemblages and a series of elegant weavings, The Mourners, that he had made in the 1960s.

Five Panel #2, Warren Seelig, corduroy weave 48″ x 55″ x 1″, 1972. Small Double Ended, Warren Seelig, nylon, stainless steel, 63″ x 33″ x 16.375, 1996, Photos by Thomas Grotta.

The transition from early to later work was even more dramatic in the works included in Acclaim! by Warren Seelig. Five Panel #2 is a complex corduroy weaving from the 1970s. You’d be forgiven if you didn’t recognize, Small Double Ended, of metal and fiber, as a work by Seelig made nearly 25 years later.

Landform, Lia Cook, cotton, 14.25″ x 12″ x 2.25″, 1978; Legs, Lia Cook, cotton, 14.25″ x 12″ x 4.5″, 1977.Presence/Absence: In the Folds, Lia Cook, cotton, rayon; woven, 192” x 41”, 1997. Photos by Tom Grotta.

There are few artists who have mastered as many bodies of work as Lia Cook. Acclaim! included Landform and Legs, pop-art-like weavings that Cook made in the 70s, shortly after completing a Master’s degree in 1973. Also exhibited was Presence/Absence: In the Folds, created two decades later. By that time, Cook was creating works on a Jacquard loom based upon photographs. In between, she had worked with painted strips of cloth to create fabric mosaics of sorts and since, she has been integrated EEG reports into her weavings.

You can see all the works in Acclaim! in our online exhibition on Artsy. You can hear more about the works by joining us for Art on the Rocks, an art talkthrough with spirits! on Zoom on June 9, 2023.

Basket, Vessel, Object, Sculpture … the Challenge of Reinvention

July 14, 2021 0 Comment

Experimentation can fuel creativity and spark unexpected results. At browngrotta arts, we are continually impressed by our object-making artists’ ability — and willingness — to reinvent themselves rather than remain in a successful, but predictable, lane.

Ed Rossbachs
Ed Rossbach’s Open Structure, 1982 and Cedar: Export Bundle, 1993. Photos by Tom Grotta

Foremost among the experimenters was perhaps Ed Rossbach who tried unexpected materials and symbols in his baskets, vessels, and assemblages including plastic, cotton balls, cardboard and Mickey Mouse. When plaiting, weaving and lace-making had been thoroughly explored, he taught himself cedar basketmaking and turned to images of bison and Native Americans.

John McQueens
John McQueen’s Deer Head, 2010 and Untitled, 1983. Photos by Tom Grotta

John McQueen has also made deviations. Most of his sculptures are made of sticks and bark, but he sometimes veers from that path, incorporating cardboard, plastic and found objects.

Dorothy Gill Barnes
Dorothy Gill Barnes, Summer Pine, 1997, and Bark and Glass Triptych, 2010. Photos by Tom Grotta

The late Dorothy Gill Barnes was a weaver and manipulator of twigs and bark, as well, but later in her career, she changed her approach after collaborating with woodturners and glass makers. In Bark and Glass Triptych, for example, the rustic bark is still a primary component, but echoed by sleek glass interior.

Mary Merkel-Hess
Mary Merkel-Hess’s Rose Tipped Basket. 1992; Green-Tipped Basket, 1992 and Umbel, 1996. Photos by Tom Grotta

One of our first exhibitions at browngrotta arts featured Mary Merkel-Hess‘ jewel-toned vessels of reed and paper in blues and reds and even purple. The works were very popular and we sold nearly every one. Two years later, we asked Merkel-Hess to create work for another two-person exhibition. Rather than recreate her first successful show, however, she sculpted works of no color — new shapes, made of translucent gampi paper. They were wildly different, but equally well-received, inspiring collectors to acquire multiple works by Merkel-Hess, accompanying her on her artistic journey. Since then she has continued to work in color — but in larger scale and different forms. She still makes room for the minimal, however, like Among the Trees, II, her 2020 wall work of gampi and pencil.

Nancy Moore Bess
Nancy Moore Bess’s From Biwa to Tahoe, 2001 and Shiro Katach i-White Form, 2008, Photos by Tom Grotta

A difficulty with her hands and the movement required to make her small, twined basket forms, led Nancy Moore Bess to invent a new process involving carved foam shapes. Still working with variations of twining and knots, the carved forms allow her to rest her hands as she worked. The result was a completely new body of work that built on previous efforts.

Stépahnie Jacques
Séphanie Jacques’s Paniers-liens II & III, 2011 and Wall / Mur, 2013. Photos by Tom Grotta

Stéphanie Jacques is another relentless reinventer. Her basket-like sculptures have incorporated yarn and woodworking and clay. She has added performance, video and still photography to the mix as well.

Kari Lønning’s Bridge to Blue, 1995 and With a Flash of Blue, 2021. Photos by Tom Grotta

Kari Lønning invented the double-walled basket of smooth, round rattan, then reinvented her baskets with fine and variegated akebia vines.

Other artists at browngrotta arts have also made changes in materials and approach. Contact us at art@browngrotta.com if you want to know more about the specific path for any artist whose work we represent. Their predisposition to change and exploration keeps viewers engaged.

Earth Day Flashback – Green from the Get Go: International Contemporary Basketmakers

April 22, 2021 0 Comment
Barkbåden by Jane Balsgaard
32jb Barkbåden, Jane Balsgaard, peeled willow twigs and paper morbæbark, 17″ x 29″ x 14″, 2008-2009. Photo by Tom Grotta

At browngrotta arts, many of the artists we represent work with natural materials and express care and concern for the environment in their work. A few years ago, we worked worked with Jane Milosch, now Visiting Professorial Fellow, Provenance & Curatorial Studies, School of Culture & Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, to curate an exhibition of basketmakers working in natural materials. The exhibition, Green from the Get Go: International Contemporary Basketmakers, began at the Wayne Art Center in Pennsylvania then traveled to the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House in Michigan and the Morris Museum in New Jersey and was the subject of our 40th catalog http://store.browngrotta.com/green-from-the-get-go-international-contemporary-basketmakers/.

The exhibition featured 75 works by 33 artists from Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, UK and the US, all of whom took inspiration from Nature and the history of basketry. Some were early innovators of 20th-century art basketry, and others emerging talents. Below are some works by artists that were part of Green from the Get Go.

Wall / Mur by Stéphanie Jacques
8sj Wall / Mur, Stéphanie Jacques, willow, 59” x 90.5” x 13.75”, 2013. Photo by Tom Grotta

As Milosch wrote in her essay for the catalog, The Entanglement of Nature and Man, “The artists in this exhibition have a strong connection to the land, whether cultivated fields or wild prairies, marshes or forests. Several cultivate, harvest, and prepare the materials from which they construct their work. They have a respectful awareness of the origin of things, and of the interconnected aspects of nature and ecosystems, which are both fragile and resilient.” 

The Basket for the Crows by Chris Drury
4cd The Basket for the Crows, Chris Drury, crow feathers, willow and hazel, 118″ x 12″ x 1.5″, 1986. Photo by Tom Grotta

Chris Drury’s work has taken him to seven continents, where he makes site-specific sculptures with indigenous flora and fauna he collects and employs in both a hunter-gatherer and scientist-like fashion, often with the help of regional communities. His Basket for Crows, 1986, a basket-like vessel made from crow feathers, accompanies a ladder or totem-like form. The shamanistic qualities of this particular combination recall universal symbols and myths about the here-and-now and the afterlife.

From the Old Haystack by Dorothy Gill Barnes
26dgb From the Old Haystack, Dorothy Gill Barnes, 2005. Photo by Tom Grotta

The late Ohio basketmaker and wood sculptor Dorothy Gill Barnes explained her use of materials as “respectfully harvested from nature” and that “the unique properties I find in bark, branches, roots, seaweed and stone suggest a work process to me. I want this problem solving to be evident in the finished piece.” Her Dendroglyph series began as experimental drawings on trees soon to be logged. While the sap is flowing up the trees, she carves into the bark, so that the drawings change organically. When she was satisfied with these “drawings,” she carefully removed the bark. Her White Pine Dendroglyph, 1995-99, combined these raw drawings with traditional woven basketry techniques, and the result is a kind of sculpted drawing, created in concert with a living tree.

Same Difference by John McQueen
21jm Same Difference, John McQueen, wood, sticks, bonsai, 54” x 60” x 24”, 2013. Photo by Tom Grotta

John McQueen’s Same Difference, 2013 draws attention to the cosmos and the relationship between the divine, man and Nature. He connects three seemingly disparate objects through something that is not visible but present in all: water, a necessary, life-nurturing resource for animals, plants and humans. These objects are displayed side-by-side, atop see-through basket-like pedestals, suggesting a kind of tenuous underpinning in their relationship to each other. All three draw water, but have their own history and function: the first is a hybrid human/elephant, which draws water through its trunk and recalls the Hindu god Ganesh, known as the patron of arts and sciences and the diva of intellect and wisdom; the second is a dead, but intact, bonsai tree with its stunted root structure that once drew water; and, the third is a manmade tool, a sump pump, engineered by humans to aid them in drawing water. McQueen comments, “Each piece is on its own stand, and they’re arranged in a line, like words. I’m trying to tell a story using what seem to be unrelated objects. I hope the viewer will say, ‘Why are these next to each other?’ and try to figure out a relationship.” 

The works in Green from the Get Go, compel the viewer to think of Nature in new ways,” wrote Milosch, —”sustaining us, providing mediums for art, acted on by man, and influencing us in return. It’s a sensual and spiritual journey that takes time and reason.” A journey with Nature that’s worth taking often. Happy Earth Day!