Tag: Flinn Gallery

Art Out and About: Fall 2024

October 16, 2024 0 Comment

It’s Fall, which means a new crop of exhibitions in the US and abroad. We took a day off after Ways of Seeing, our recent exhibition, closed, and visited two exhibitions in our neighborhood, but there are others to see — from Washington, DC to Greencastle, Indiana to Dussedorf, Germany.

Tara Donovan
Aggregations by Tara Donovan at The Bruce Museum. Photo by Tom Grotta

Tara Donovan: Aggregations
Through March 9, 2025
The Bruce Museum
1 Museum Drive
Greenwich, CT 06830

“Known for her experimentation with materials and her rigorous, labor-intensive process, Tara Donovan is something of an alchemist. She transforms the mundane and familiar into the strange and otherworldly, even as her works approximate things found in the natural world. At the the Bruce, the artist explores the additive effects of “accumulating identical objects,” or aggregations, in which she layers and combines materials together to complicate visual distinctions between part and whole. The final monumental work inhabits the gallery with an almost animate presence, calling to mind a mineral or petrified plant.

Kumi Yamashita
Portraits by Kumi Yamashita at The Flinn Gallery. Photo by Tom Grotta

The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita
Through November 6, 2024
Flinn Gallery
Greenwich Library
101 West Putnam Avenue, Second Floor
Greenwich, CT 06830

Kumi Yamashita uses a series of techniques and simple materials to creating intriguing works of art. Discussing her shadow art series, Yamashita explains, “I sculpt using both light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow).” The exhibition also features provocative portraits crafted by meticulously winding a single, unbroken sewing thread around thousands of small galvanized nails and portraits on sheets created by stamping with vibram shoe soles.

Sheila Hicks
Sheila Hicks, Labyrinthe du paradis, 2024, Photo: Claire Dorn, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Sheila Hicks
Through February 23, 2025
Kunsthalle Düsseldorf  (Opening Friday, October 11 at 6pm)
Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop (Opening Saturday, October 12 at 2pm)
Dusseldorf and Bottrop, Germany

Opening this Fall, the Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop and the  Kunsthalle Düsseldorf will present the first major solo exhibition of Sheila Hicks (b. 1934) across two cities. Comprising a total of 140 works from all creative periods, the collaborative presentation provides a comprehensive overview of the the artist’s multifaceted oeuvre for the first time in Germany.Sheila Hicks’ unique practice unfolds in the interplay between material, color, and space: in large and small-format wall works, tapestries, reliefs, sculptures, and installations, the seemingly infinite possibilities of these three dimensions unfurl. “What can you do with thread?” is the question that the artist has tirelessly explored since studying with Josef Albers at the Yale School of Art in the 1950s. 

DY Begay
DY Begay and her work. Photos by Helena Hernmarck

Sublime Light: Tapestry Art of DY Begay
Through July 13, 2025 
National Museum of the American Indian
National Mall
Fourth Street & Independence Avenue
Washington, DC 20560

Sublime Light: Tapestry Art of DY Begay celebrates more than three decades of innovation by fiber artist DY Begay (Diné [Navajo], b. 1953). As the materials from National Museum of the American Indian explain, “Begay’s tapestry art is at once fundamentally modern and essentially Diné, each work an exploration of the artist’s passion for experiencing and interpreting her world. The primary world that Begay explores is Tsélaní, her birthplace and homeland on the Navajo Nation reservation. From this firm foundation, her innate and lifelong curiosity has motivated her to investigate the expressive power of color and design in developing her distinctive aesthetic. Begay creates unique artworks that bridge her traditional Diné upbringing and experimental fiber art practice. Through her embrace of color, passion for design, and innovative handling of fiber, Begay creates art that expresses a non-Western way of being to a contemporary audience.” Sublime Light is the first retrospective of Begay’s career, showcasing 48 of her most remarkable tapestries.

Gudrun Pagter
Two vertical and two horizontal greens tapestry. Photo by Gudrun Pagter

ACROSS
Through November 10, 2025
Kalundborg Art Association
BispegaardenKalundborg, Denmark

Anne Bjørn, Gudrun Pagter, Gurli Elbaegaard and Lisbeth Voight Durand are featured in a group exhibition at the Kalundborg Art Association, entitled ACROSS.

Jiro Yonezawa
Spiraling, Twisting, Unraveling installation. Photo courtesy of ASU

Spiraling, Twisting, Unraveling: Explorations in Pattern and Form
Through June 29, 2025
ASU Art Museum
51 East 10th Street
Tempe, AZ  85281

Culled entirely from the Arizona State University’s Art Museum’s collection, Spiraling, Twisting, Unraveling: Explorations in Pattern and Form explores the dynamic landscape and languages found through contemporary craft today. The exhibition features twenty-five artists, including Christine Joy, Kay Sekimachi, Mary Giles, John Garrett, Polly Adams Sutton, and Jiro Yonezawa who examine dimensions of decoration, pattern and form through their varied practices to engage with some of the most pressing issues of our time.

Patterns of Abstraction
Installation: Patterns in Abstraction. Photo by by Mike Jensen

Patterns in Abstraction: Black Quilts from the High’s Collection
Through January 5, 2025
High Museum of Art
1280 Peachtree St, NE
Atlanta, GA 30309

According to the High Musuem, for more than a century, the potential kinship between quilts and abstract painting has sparked lively debate. “Although the color-rich geometric patchwork of quilts is visually resonant with examples of abstract painting often credited as pinnacles of artistic innovation, many have argued that such comparisons fail to honor the integrity of quilts within their distinct conditions of production. Quilts made by Black women have too often been left out of the conversation altogether.” The High has collected Black quilts since the 1980s and recently has quintupled its holdings to ensure that Black quilts have a continually rotating presence in the museum’s collection galleries. Patterns in Abstraction: Black Quilts from the High’s Collection aims to answer a larger question: “How can quilts made by Black women change the way we tell the history of abstract art?”

Lia Cook
Installation: Beyond: Tapestry Expanded. Photo by Stuart Snoddy

Beyond: Tapestry Expanded
Through Dec 8, 2024
American Tapestry Alliance
Richard E. Peeler Art Center
DePauw University 
10 West Hanna Street
Greencastle, IN 46135

Beyond: Tapestry Expanded is a curated and juried exhibition that features work from artists, including Lia Cook, exploring the expansive properties of tapestry. Using the definition of tapestry as a nonfunctional, handwoven pictorial structure, artists combine both hand and digital processes, using non-traditional materials, creating three-dimensional forms, or incorporating multi-media components, including sound and video. 

Enjoy!

Art Out and About: In the US and Abroad

March 15, 2023 0 Comment

So many exhibitions to visit this Spring from Sweden, Australia and the UK to California, Washington and New York — and two in Connecticut. Check them out.

Beauty and the Unexpected
Modern and Contemporary American Crafts
National Museum
Södra Blasieholmshamnen 2
Stockholm, Sweden
March 30, 2023 – January 21, 2024

Gyöngy Laky Incident
Incident, Gyöngy Laky, from Beauty and the Unexpected exhibition in Stockholm, Natural and commercial wood, paint,
bullets for building (screws), 50” x 50” x 4.5”, 2012. Photo by Tom Grotta

National Museum has invited Helen W. Drutt English, pioneering craft educator and gallerist of American Modern and Contemporary Crafts since the 1960s, to assemble a collection of objects drawn from the field of “American Crafts.” The selection of 81 works from the 1950s until today will in future enrich National Museum’s collections and will provide a possibility to look at American Crafts in the Nordic context.

International Textile Art Biennale 
(Fibre Arts Australia)
Emu Park Art Gallery
EMU Park
13 Hill Street
Queensland, Australia 
From April 15 – June 10, 2023

Neha Puri Dhir handwoven silk
Overflow by Neha Puri Dhir, stitch-Resist Dyeing on Handwoven Silk (Diptych), 95 x 128cm 95 x 32cm, 2022. Photo by Neha Puri Dhir

Fibre Arts Australia is highlighting the contemporary practice within Art Textiles as an art form.

​The International Art Textile Biennale (IATB) seeks to exhibit the best of contemporary art textiles and invited submissions, from Australia and Internationally, that reflect a wide range of works related to the textile medium. Thirty-five artists were selected to participate, including Neha Puri Dhir. The works are exhibited at various locations throughout Australia.

Wendy Wahl Installation
Wendy Wahl Installation. Photo by Brooke Yung, assistant curator

Paper Town
Fitchburg Art Museum
185 Elm Street
Fitchburg, MA 01420
Through June 4, 2023

This exhibition takes paper out of the two-dimensional into a world that is fantastical, intricate, colorful, and personal. Inspired by the materiality of paper and the metamorphic quality of the papermaking process, Paper Town explores paper in pulp, cast, folded, and cut forms. The exhibition includes artwork by several artists located in New England:  May Babcock, Erik and Martin Demaine, Andrea Dezsö, Tory Fair, Hong Hong, Fred Liang, Michelle Samour, Heidi Whitman and browngrotta artist Wendy Wahl.

Polly Barton Irate
Works by Polly Barton, James Bassler and others in Ikat: A World of Compelling Cloth. Photo by Polly Barton.

Ikat: A World of Compelling Cloth
Seattle Art Museum
1300 First Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
Through May 29, 2023

Visitors to Ikat: A World of Compelling Cloth, will enter the woven world of ikat, a complex textile pattern that knows no borders. Presenting over 100 textiles from the museum’s global collection with gifts and loans from a dedicated Seattle-area collector, Ikat: A World of Compelling Cloth is an introduction to the meticulous and time-honored processes of dyeing threads to create complicated hand-weaving. Contemporary work in the exhibition includes tapestries by Polly Barton and James Bassler, and an extraordinary installation by Rowland Ricketts.

Connective Threads
Palos Verde Cultural Center
Fiber Art from Southern California
Curated by Carrie Burckle and Jo Lauria
Through April 15, 2023

Carol Shaw-Sutton installation
Persephone’s Filters by Carol Shaw-Sutton. Photo by Carol Shaw-Sutton

Connective Threads provides a window into what is currently engaging fiber artists, even as this discipline continues to evolve and change. Emanating from artists’ studios in Southern California, the exhibition offers unique perspectives on the complicated identities of fiber art as a genre. Collectively they offer a penetrating examination of fiber’s possibilities. Exhibiting artists include Jim Bassler, Cameron Taylor-Brown, Ben Cuevas, Mary Little, Michael F. Rohde, and Carol Shaw-Sutton. 

Detail Magdalena Abakanowicz
Magdalena Abakanowicz’s Montana del Fuego detail by Tom Grotta

Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope
Tate Modern
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
Through May 21, 2023

In the ’60s and ’70s, the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz created radical sculptures from woven fibers. They were soft, not hard; ambiguous and organic; towering works that hung from the ceiling and pioneered a new form of installation. They became known as the “Abakans.” Many of the most significant Abakans are brought together at the Tate Modern in a forest-like display in a 64-meter long gallery space.

The exhibition explores this transformative period of Abakanowicz’s practice when her woven forms came off the wall and into three-dimensional space. With these works she brought soft, fibrous forms into a new relationship with sculpture. A selection of early textile pieces and her little-known drawings are also on show.

And of course, there are the four “don’t miss” events browngrotta arts is involved in this Spring.

Norma Minkowitz installation
Norma Minkowitz: Body to Soul installation. Photo by Tom Grotta

Norma Minkowitz: Body to Soul
Fairfield University Art Gallery
Bellarmine Hall
Fairfield, CT
Through April 6, 2023

Gyöngy Laky and John McQueen
Out on a Limb by Gyöngy Laky and Billboard by John McQueen from the WordPlay exhibition.

Wordplay: Messages in Branches & Bark 
Flinn Gallery: Greenwich Library
101 West Putnam Avenue 
Greenwich, CT
March 30 – May 10, 2023

Aby Mackie detail
Detail: We Can All Be Saved 10 by Aby Mackie, gilded gold lead decontructed and reconfigured antique textiles, 2022. Photo by Tom Grotta

Making a Mark: The Art of Self Expression
Bay Street Theater
1 Bay Street
Sag Harbor, NY
Through May 7, 2023

And last, but not least, our Spring Art in the Barn at browngrotta arts:

Dominic Di Mare installation
The Mourners, Dominic Di Mare from the Acclaim! Works by Award-Winning Artists exhibition, waxed linen, wood, 46.5″-50.5″(h) x 24″each, 1962. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Acclaim! Work by Award-Winning International Artists
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road
Wilton, CT
April 29 – May 7, 2023

Contemporary Fiber Art – Trends Observed, Part I

January 12, 2022 0 Comment

In December of 2021 of last year, we were asked to talk to a group of fiber artists about trends we had observed in the art textiles field. In two arttextstyle posts we’ll summarize the insights we shared with the group. First, we described a bit about browngrotta arts’ creative journey and fiber arts’ place in the art world in the years we’ve been the medium’s champion.

2004 Art Palm Beach. Works by Masakazu Kobayashi, Mary Merkel-Hess, Deborah Valoma, Jo Barker and Sheila Hicks, among others. Photo by Tom Grotta.

browngrotta arts began quite informally in 1987, showing artwork in our Connecticut home at parties or by appointment – a concept we called “art in use.” We quickly discovered two things – First, people weren’t terribly willing to buy paintings from a suburban home, with New York galleries nearby. Second, fiber work was not well represented on the East Coast. The fiber art we showed, however – baskets by Mary Merkel-Hess and Markku Kosonen, and tapestries by Mariette Rousseau-Vermette – was new and interesting to clients and us.  We decided to focus on that.

1987 Contemporary art-in-use
browngrotta arts 1987 exhibition. Contemporary art-in-use

Fiber art on the outs

That said, 90s and early 2000s were not great for fiber art. The slick and shiny were popular in furnishings and design. Some of the public fiber commissions from the 70s had begun to show their age and give fiber a bad name. The craft/art divide was harsh and dark – and women’s work, like weaving, knitting and crochet – was at the bottom of that chasm.  The period saw fiber friendly galleries like Sybaris in Detroit, Louise Allrich in Califoria, and Bobby Okun in Santa Fe all close their doors. But we hung in there, with our unusual business model – presenting fiber artists from Japan, Scandinavia, the UK and pioneering and emerging artists from the US, attending art fairs, partnering with art centers and documenting the work in catalogs and on our website.

Beyond Weaving: International Art Textiles
browngrott arts exhibition Beyond Weaving: Internatioanl ArtTextiles at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, Connecticut

In 2006, we curated Beyond Weaving: International Art Textiles at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, Connecticut, which included work by Sheila Hicks, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Lenore Tawney. Mildred Constantine, the former textile curator at MoMA, told us it was the “best fiber exhibition in 15 years,” which tells you a lot about how the medium had been sidelined in that period.

Gradual reemergence

But slowly, in that time period, fiber’s profile began to improve. Appreciation for natural materials increased as did appreciation for the hand made. Sheila Hicks had an exhibition of miniatures at Bard in 2006; Ruth Asawa a retrospective at the de Young 2007; 50 years of Sheila Hicks opened at the Addison, then the Mint and ICA in Boston in 2010 and so did Contemporary Fiber Art: a selection from the Permanent Collection at the Art Institute in Chicago.

ICA Boston 2014
ICA Boston, 2014 Fiber Sculpture – 1960 to the present. Photo by Tom Grotta

The watershed for fiber art’s resurgence was just four years away. In 2014, Janelle Porter, who had worked on 50 Years of Sheila Hicks, organized the expansive ICA show, Fiber Sculpture – 1960 to the present. The exhibition travelled to Columbus, OH, Produced a detailed book and Porter was awarded a best museum exhibition award. 

It was as if a dam had broken – 50 Fiber artists toured the US in Innovators and Legends in 2013, initiated at the Muskegon Museum of Art, a retrospective of François Grossen’s work opened at Blum and Poe and one of Ethel Stein’s work opened at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014. Anne Wilson, Louise Bourgeois, Lenore Tawney were also featured in Thread Lines at the Drawing Center 2014. Richard Tuttle unveiled a vast installation of weavings in Tate Modern (followed by an exhibition of Textiles by Sonya DeLauney in 2015). The Art Newspaper declared: “Soft Fabrics Have Solid Appeal;” the Wall Street Journal called Fiber “The Art World’s New Material Obsession.” 

Taking a thread for a walk-MoMA
Aurélia-Munñoz-Åguila-Beige-(Brown-Eagle) at Taking a thread for a walk-MoMA. photo by Denis-Doorly

Fiber Art’s Continued Recognition and Appreciation

The trend has continued since – Anni Albers at the Tate in 2018; Women Take the Floor in Boston; Off the Wall: American Art to Wear in Philadelphia and Taking Thread for Walk at MoMA, all in 2019,Weaving Beyond the Bauhaus in Chicago in 2020 and Olga d’Amaral’s Weaving a Rock in Houston in 2021 and at Cranbrook in 2022. Sheila Hicks, Off the Grid, at The Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire, UK, Faith Ringgold, American People at the New Musuem in New York City open this year as do 34 fiber artists, including Lia Cook, in Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women at the Smithsonian in November. 

It’s an exciting time to promote art textiles and fiber sculpture as browngrotta arts has done for three decades. In Contemporary Fiber Art — Trends Observed, Part 2, we’ll examine some of the changes we’ve seen in the field and in the approach of the artists who work with us.

Make a Day of It: Influence and Evolution and Activities in the Area

April 20, 2015 0 Comment

Influence and Evolution installation: Adela Akers, Sheila Hicks, Stephanie Jacques, Tim Johnson

We hope you are planning a trip to browngrotta arts in Wilton, Connecticut to visit Influence and Evolution: Fiber Sculpture…then and now between April 24 and May 3rd. If you have the time and inclination here are a few other activities you might find of interest.

Denyse Schmidt: In The Making Historic Inspirations/New Quilts at the Wilton Historical Society

Denyse Schmidt: In The Making Historic Inspirations/New Quilts at the Wilton Historical Society. Photo by Allison Michael Orenstein

Denyse Schmidt: In The Making
Historic Inspirations/New Quilts
Wilton Historical Society
224 Danbury Road
Wilton, CT 06897
203.762.7257
The creations in Denyse Schmidt: In The Making Historic Inspirations/New Quilts are modern interpretations of classic quilt designs – contemporary, functional textile art with deep historic roots. Schmidt’s quilts, with their quirky style and fearless use of color, are fresh and unexpected interpretations of traditional patterns like Rail Fence, Lafayette Orange Peel, Ocean Waves, Mariner’s Compass, Streak of Lightning, Wagon Wheel, Snake Trail, and Churn Dash. Many resemble abstract collage paintings, and all share their maker’s unselfconscious directness. Also at the Society, One Loop at a Time: June Myles’ Hooked Art, hooked works, “painted in wool” in a style that finds its origins in folk art.

Gigantic Spring Book Sale Fundraiser
Wilton Library
137 Old Ridgefield Road
Wilton, CT 06897
203.762.3950
April 25th 9-5
April 26th 12-5
April 27th and 28th, 10-5 (prices reduced)
The Wilton Library sale wilton-library’s-annual-gigantic-book-sale features more than 70,000 items sorted in more than 50 categories – mysteries, gardening, travel, and science fiction; gently used, collectible, rare books, DVD’s, CD’s, books on CD and a building by architect and designer Eliot Noyes. Notes was head of Industrial Design at MoMA and worked as consultant design director for IBM for 21 years collaborating with Paul Rand and Charles Eames in the first comprehensive corporate design program in America. Homes by Notes can also be found in nearby New Canaan. Learn more specifics in Eliot Noyes by Gordon Bruce.

Marines_SQ_Retreat_2

Harvey Kurtzman & John Severin Marines Retreat!, Frontline Combat #1, 1951 Pen and Ink on Bristol Board 15″ x 22″ ©William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc. Collection of Robert Reiner

A little farther afield:

KA-POW! When Comics Imperiled America
Flinn Gallery
Greenwich Library
Second Floor
101 West Putnam Avenue
Greenwich, CT 06830
“The idea here is to look at a period in American history where we were fearful that comic books were creating juvenile delinquents,” says Rob Reiner, the owner of the 74 panels of coveted comic art that makes up the exhibit. The crime and horror titles were considering so dangerous, the U.S. Senate launched a formal investigation into comic books during that virtually closed down the comic industry. http://flinngallery.com/onview.php
Through April 29th only
Hours:
Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Chris Larson The Katonah Relocation Project exhibition poster

Chris Larson The Katonah Relocation Project exhibition poster

Chris Larson: The Katonah Relocation Project and A Home for Art: Edward Larrabee Barnes and KMA
Katonah Museum of Art
134 Jay Street – Route 22
Katonah, NY 10536
914.232.9555

Chris Larson: The Katonah Relocation Project, the Museum explores the literal relocation of Katonah 122 years ago. By the late 1800s, New York City’s need for more drinking water necessitated the creation of a new fresh water reservoir in Westchester. The site selected for the reservoir included three towns, including Katonah, condemning them to be flooded. As reported on April 8, 1893 in The New York Times, “The doom of Katonah is sealed, and in two months the picturesque village will be barely more than a memory conjured up in the mind at the sound of its quaint old Indian name.” The residents lifted their homes onto logs to be pulled by horses along soap-slicked timbers, re-siting their town to present-day Katonah. With a nod to the Katonah narrative,Larson constructs a replica of the Mt. Kisco home of the KMA’s architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, as if it were dragged in on logs, elevated on timber cribbing, and pierced through by the Norway spruce trees.

A Home for Art: Edward Larrabee Barnes and KMA celebrates the architect who designed the KMA. Trained by legendary architects at Harvard University, Edward Larrabee Barnes strove for simplicity and functionality in his designs for skyscrapers, museums, schools, botanical gardens, and private homes. The Katonah Museum project was unique in design—an intimate, light-filled space surrounded by the natural beauty of this idyllic hamlet located just 45 minutes from New York City. Unlike many large projects Barnes was to undertake, this one was as much a form of personal expression as architectural design, with the informal feel of a domestic space for art, as he worked in Manhattan but lived within family in nearby Mt. Kisco. http://www.katonahmuseum.org/exhibitions/.
Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday: 10-5
Closed Monday

aldrich.logoThe Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, just up the street from browngrotta arts at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, Connecticut, is between exhibitions between exhibitions, re-opening on May 3rd. However, staff there have told us they expect to have some of the galleries will be open, including possibly, Nancy Shaver’s Reconciliation, in which the artist will juxtapose recent sculpture made from women’s clothing fabric and other materials and objects found in rural thrift stores with Depression-era photographs by Walker Evans (who was one of her teachers) and images of the artist, fabric, and clothing designer Sonia Delaunay. Call first to confirm: 203.438.4519. The Aldrich is just up the street from browngrotta arts at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT.

If you’d like a list of restaurants in the area, contact us at art@browngrotta.com.

Make a Day of It! Visit Retro/Prospective and Other Art Events Near Wilton, CT

October 20, 2012 0 Comment

If you plan to come to Wilton, Connecticut between October 26th and November 4th for browngrotta arts anniversary exhibition, Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture, consider adding a stop at one of the other cultural venues in our area on your trip. There are several exhibitions to choose from — all within 30 minutes of browngrotta arts:

Flinn Gallery
Greenwich Library
9 x 9 x 3: New Visions
101 West Putnam Avenue
Greenwich, CT 06830
203.622.7947
through November 28, 2012

Katherine D. Crone, Blades of Grass, Wood, Usuyou Gampish, nylon monofilament Digitally altered photograph, inkjet printed, bookbinding stitched

9 x 9 x 3: New Visions is an exhibition of works created by members of the Textile Study Group of New York to fit inside wooden boxes with 9” x 9” x 3” exterior dimensions. Juror for the exhibition was Janet Koplos, who is a contributing editor of Art in America, where she was senior editor for 18 years. Among the artists included in the exhibition are: Katherine D. Crone, Margaret Cusack, Jeanne Heifetz, Nancy Koenigsberg, Carole P. Kunstadt, Yasuko Okumura, Gail Resen, Lois Russell, Barbara Schulman, Naomi Tarantal, Charlotte Thorp, K. Velis Turan, Saaraliisa Ylital and Erma Martin Yost. The Gallery hours are: Sunday 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm and Thursday 10:00 am – 8:00 pm.


The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
Wendell Castle
Wandering Forms— Works from 1959–1979
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT 06877
203.438.4519
through February 20, 2013

Wendell Castle birdsyeye Maple Veneer and Mahogany Table, private Collection
photo by Tom Grotta

Celebrated American designer/craftsman Wendell Castle (b. 1932) has been creating unique pieces of handmade sculpture and furniture for over five decades. Castle, who has consistently challenged the traditional boundaries of functional design since the outset of his career, was instrumental in helping to shape the American studio furniture movement throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He remains one of the most important American furniture makers working today.”To be inventive and playful and produce furniture which is a complement to nature, rather than in contrast to it is my philosophy,” Castle wrote in the catalog for the exhibition, Fantasy Furniture, held at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, New York in 1966.”My idea is not to reconstruct or stylize natural forms, but to produce a synthesis or metamorphosis of natural forms.” The Aldrich Museum hours are: Tuesday to Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm.

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
united states
Artist’s Projects
through February 24, 2013

united states is a semester of solo exhibitions and artist’s projects that approach both the nature of the United States as a country and “united states” as the notion of uniting separate forms, entities, or conditions of being. Timed to coincide with the 2012 American election season, united states is presented at a time when political and social divisions in this country are readily apparent, and polarization on many major issues is at an historical high. The Aldrich Museum hours are: Tuesday to Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm.

The Wilton Historical Society
Building a Future From the Past: Architecture
224 Danbury Road
Wilton, CT 06897
203.762.7257
through October 31, 2012

Architect David Ling holding, model of the browngrotta barn from the building a Future From the Past: Architecture exhibit ion. Photo by TomGrotta

This exhibition explores architects’ work to preserve antique homes while bringing them into the 21st Century. Among the homes included is browngrotta arts‘ home/office, designed by David Ling Architect, New York, New York. The Society’s hours are: Tuesday through Friday: 10 am to 4 pm; Saturday: 1 to 4 pm; 2nd & 4th Sundays of the month 1 to 4 pm.

browngrotta arts
Retro/Prospective: 25+ Years of Art Textiles and Sculpture
276 Ridgefield Road
Wilton, CT 06897
203.834.0623
October 26 through November 4, 2012

Ray Series, Mary Merkel-Hess, paper, reed, 24″ x 24″ x 6″ each, 2012, photo by Tom Grotta

This exhibition features work by more than 70 artists, some are pioneers, some mid career and some new to the field of art textiles, while others work in wood and metal, porcelain, glass and clay. Artists’ reception and Opening: October 27th, 1 to 5 pm; http://browngrotta.com’ hours October 26th and October 28th- November 4th: 10 am to 5 pm.

Art News: Paperworks: material as medium — Miriam Londoño

May 3, 2012 0 Comment

Miriam Londoño studied art at Antioquia University in Medelin, Colombia and at the Arts Academy in Florence, Italy. While she lived in Medelin, Londoño worked as an artistexplained the text from an exhibition earlier this year at Galerie 106 in the Netherlands.”The finished works hang on the wall as transparent paper strips with ornate characters and the words a shadow cast on the wall. The graceful play of light and dark contrasts with the emotional character of the stories described there. This paradox of light and shadow frequently reappear in her work.” Londoño’s work has been exhibited in the US, the UK, and Australia, Europe, Asia and South America. Two of Londoño’s works will be included in  Paperworks: material as medium at the Flinn Gallery at he Greenwich Public Library, Greenwich, Connecticut from May 10th through June 21st, curated by Kelly Eberly and Barbara Richards and browngrotta arts. The Flinn Gallery is in the Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT 06830. For more information call: 203.622.7947.

Exhibition News: Paperworks: material as medium opens in Greenwich on May 10th

April 28, 2012 0 Comment

UNTITLED, Naomi Kobayashi, kayori thread, paper, 99″ x 54″ x 5″, 2006, photo by Tom Grotta, courtesy of browngrotta arts

Paper holds a powerful place in the history of human interaction, marking our milestones with birth certificates, marriage licenses and diplomas, maintaining our collective Paperworks: material as medium at the Flinn Gallery at the Greenwich Public Library, Greenwich, Connecticut from May 10th through June 21st, curated by Kelly Eberly and Barbara Richards and browngrotta arts, celebrates paper in another guise – as a medium for art.

The work of more than 30 international artists inspired by and created from paper is featured in Paperworks. In them, paper has been stitched and plaited, carved and stacked, used as pulp to be molded and reformed, while newspapers, telephone books and dress patterns have been repurposed as vessels and sculpture. The  artists in Paperworks treat varieties of paper their material as others would wood, linen, clay or marble.

OVER EASY, Dona Anderson, paper armature covered with pattern paper as surface design. Frame (cover) is rounds reeds strengthened with pattern paper, polymer and black paint 10″ x 14″ x 14″ , 2011. photo by Tom Grotta, courtesy of browngrotta arts

Several of the artists in Paperworks create structures of recycled papers. Wendy Wahl of the US uses pages of old encyclopedias to create an arbor of arches while Kazue Honma of Japan creates vessels from Japanese telephone books and Japanese artist Toshio Sekiji weaves wallworks newspapers from around the world. The exhibition includes constructions by the late US artist Ed Rossbach made of cardboard and newpaper and vessels made of dress pattern paper by US artist Dona Anderson.

34ts COUNTERPOINT 8, Toshio Sekiji, Korean newspapers; black urushi lacquer 28″ x 25″ x 4″, 2009, photo by Tom Grotta, courtesy of browngrotta arts

For Jane Balsgaard of Denmark, Naomi Kobayashi of Japan and Pat Campbell and Mary Merkel-Hess of the US, handmade and gampi paper create semi-translucent, ethereal objects that seem capable of floating. In Balsgaard’s case, the paper she uses is made from materials gathered near her summer home in Sweden. Mary Merkel-Hess uses gampi paper, papier-maiche and reed to create baskets, softly lit sculptures and wall works. Other artists, including Sylvia Seventy from the US, use molded paper pulp to create art, including in Seventy’s case, molded paper bowls populated with found and other objects.

brazilian palm, banana leaves, morbærbark paper, 11″ x 24″ x 9.5″, 2010, photo by Tom Grotta, courtesy of browngrotta arts

In conjunction with Paperworks: material as medium there will be a Curator’s Walkthrough on May 12th at 2 p.m. and an Artist’s Talk by artist Wendy Wahl on June 10th at 2 p.m. The Flinn Gallery is in the Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT 06830. An opening reception will be held May 10th from 6-8. For more information call: 203.622.7947.