We’ve already told you about the Sheila Hicks’ exhibition in Germany, Olga D’Amaral’s in France and Japandí Revisited: shared aesthetics and influences, in Wayne, Pennsylvania, which closes this weekend on January 25th at 4 pm after a lecture and reception. Below some notes from the US and abroad:

California
Cut from the Same Cloth: Textiles and Technology
Palo Alto Art Center 
through April 6, 2025
250 Hamilton Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94301

As the Cultural Center observes, “textiles have not only fueled the creative inspiration of artists throughout history, they also have provided the catalyst for technological innovation. Joseph Marie Jacquard, a French merchant, invented the ‘jacquard machine’ in 1801, which simplified the manufacture of textiles and later became the inspiration for IBM’s first computer introduced in the 1940s and 1950s. This exhibition,” which includes Lia Cook, “investigates the many unexplored relationships between craft and technology and demonstrates, through the work of a group of artists, how contemporary art practice has seamlessly embraced both.”

9 x 9: Contemporary Quilts & Containers
Palo Verdes Art Center 
January 25 – April 12, 2025
Opening Reception: February 1, 2025, 6 – 9 pm
5504 Crestridge Road 
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275

Beginning on the 25th, the Palo Verdes Art Center will showcase artworks by 18 distinguished artists from California’s established fiber art community. The artists, who include Karyl Sisson, Kay Sekimachi, and Carol Shaw-Sutton, will present innovative interpretations of traditional craft forms. “These dynamic quilted, woven, plaited, and twined works investigate the purposes and potential of cross-cultural narratives and techniques through diverse media,” says the Center, “expanding our understanding of visual culture. Material-based, conceptually engaged, and skillfully executed, these artists transform conventional quilting and container-making practices into sophisticated contemporary expressions.”

Denmark
Artapestry7, International Triennial
Kunst Centret Silkeborg Bad 
January 25 to  April 21, 2025
Gjessøvej 40
8600 Silkeborg, Denmark

This is the seventh time that the organization European Tapestry Forum has sent a juried exhibition of woven tapestries on tour in Europe, and the fourth time that the triennial has been exhibited in Silkeborg. The triennial, which includes work by Gudrun Pagter, Irina Kolesnikova, and Lija Rage, gives the audience a good insight into the current trends among weaving artists. The jury has selected the 37 most beautiful, skillfully executed and most creative tapestries from more than 100 submissions.

Washington, DC
We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
February 21, 2025 – June 22, 2025
1661 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC

In 1981, the Smithsonian acquired 35 qulits collected by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, who holds a doctorate in aerospace engineering, is a prolific artist, curator, and scholar.  Dr. Mazloomi founded the African American Quilt Guild of Los Angeles, and then, in 1985, she founded the Women of Color Quilters Network, fulfilling the desire of isolated makers to connect and continue Black textile traditions. The quilts in this exhibition are remarkable in scope and groundbreaking in their representation of Black history and culture as told with needle and thread. “Sometimes the weight of living on this planet as a woman, we have to be reminded of who we are,” Dr. Mazloomi has said. “Quilts help to serve that purpose of reminding women about their power.”

New York
Anne Wilson: The MAD Drawing Room and Errant Behaviors
through May 11, 2025
Museum of Arts and Design
Jerome and Simona Chazen Building
2 Columbus Circle,
New York, New York 10019

Chicago artist, Anne Wilson has created the MAD Drawing Room, where visitors can engage in the beauty and complexity of the artist’s personal archives of lace and openwork textiles through close looking, drawing, or writing. The Drawing Room is inspired by the Davis Street Drawing Room, Wilson’s experimental and participatory art project in Evanston, Ilinois. Within the space, visitors are invited to explore Wilson’s library of art and fiber texts, listen to the playlist of sound sources for her video installation, and draw or write using the materials provided. Wilson’s sound-and-video installation, Errant Behaviors, newly acquired by MAD, plays in the gallery. Its source material of lace and openwork fragments are also on view in The MAD Drawing Room. You can see multiple images and learn more about the MAD Drawing Room on Wilson’s website.

Canada
Dawn MacNutt: Timeless Forms
through April 18, 2025
Mount St. Vincent’s University Gallery 
Mount Saint Vincent University
166 Bedford Highway
Halifax, NS
B3M 2J6

This comprehensive retrospective exhibition celebrates Nova Scotia artist Dawn MacNutt. Co-curated by Melanie Colosimo and Emily Falvey, this exhibition showcases MacNutt’s unique approach to weaving, which she transforms into large-scale figurative sculptures that explore themes of human fragility. Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue featuring essays by the artist herself. Spanning four decades, the exhibition moves from delicate miniatures crafted in silver and copper wire to monumental bronze sculptures cast from woven, local willow branches. Together, these works link traditional craft practices to modern and conceptual sculpture and enrich contemporary perspectives on care and the handmade. Accompanying the exhibition is a book, Timeless Forms, that features essays by the artist herself.

Korea
In the art news department: The Korean Craft and Design Foundation selected Yeonsoon Chang as the winner of its 2024 Creation Division Prize. The artwork in the photo was showcased at this year’s Craft Trend Fair in Seoul in December 2024. It is made of Teflon mesh, pure gold leaf, and eco-resin. “The artist Yeonsoon Chang continues to create works that visualize a unique aesthetic through a Korean sense of beauty, transcending the boundaries of tradition and modernity, time and space, using the properties and structure of textiles,” the Foundation wrote. “Her ongoing dedication has set an example in the craft community and garnered international recognition for the excellence of Korean craftsmanship.”

Receiving the prize has energized and inspired Chang. “For the past nine and a half years since my retirement, I have immersed myself in the study of Eastern classics and the creation of my work,” she wrote on Instagram. “Through this journey, the once-abstract concepts of 空 (Emptiness) and 虛 (Void) have taken on a tangible and experiential reality. I believe the endurance of Korean craft over thousands of years is not solely due to its techniques but to the profound spirit that lies beyond them, deeply woven into its essence. Just days ago, I envisioned slowing the pace of my life to delve deeper into this path, yet now I find myself aboard a high-speed train, unable to control its momentum. Looking ahead, I see my calling as bringing to life the spirit of Korean craft, allowing it to breathe and resonate through my work.”

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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.

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
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. 

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.

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.

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 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?”

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!

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Over the past month, our New This Week series has introduced an array of talented artists, including Gudrun Pagter, James Bassler, Noriko Takamiya, and Zofia Butrymowicz. We’re thrilled to showcase their remarkable contributions and offer you a glimpse into their extraordinary work.

Catch up on all our recent features and stay tuned for more exciting updates as we count down to our big exhibition!

Kicking off the month, we had the pleasure of featuring the work of Gudrun Pagter. A distinguished Danish artist, Pagter is celebrated for her bold and graphic tapestries that engage deeply with themes of architecture and geometry.

Pagter’s artwork is characterized by narrow lines and shifts in color fields, demonstrating her commitment to exploring and refining artistic idioms. She describes her approach as a rigorous investigation into the picture plane, employing a disciplined structuring of geometric forms and a restricted color palette. Her work not only captures the essence of architectural forms but also invites viewers into a meticulously crafted world of design.

We’re thrilled to showcase Pagter’s captivating pieces and hope you found her feature as inspiring as we did!

Next, we turned our spotlight to the remarkable James Bassler and his tapestry Tracking Nasca Patterns. Since 1980, Bassler has delved into various weaving traditions, including the wedge-weave structure of the Navajo, Japanese shibori, and pre-Columbian scaffold weave techniques. His work is a testament to his dedication to exploring and preserving these ancient textile practices.

This specific piece was crafted with linen for both the warp and parts of the weft, this tapestry incorporates natural dark brown cotton from Guatemala, lighter brown cotton from Oaxaca, and Coyuchi, a handspun silk from Oaxaca. The unique silk used in this work is produced by worms that feed on native oak trees, adding a special touch of nature’s elegance. The highlight of the tapestry is the striking purple-dyed handspun cotton called Caracol, derived from a traditional dyeing process involving sea snails found along the Pacific coast of Oaxaca. Local artisans collect the snails to extract the dye before returning them to their habitat, demonstrating a sustainable practice deeply rooted in tradition.

We’re honored to showcase Bassler’s intricate and culturally rich tapestry, and we hope you enjoy exploring the craftsmanship and historical significance embedded in this piece.

We then turned our spotlight to the innovative Noriko Takamiya, celebrated for her contemporary take on traditional Japanese basketmaking techniques. Takamiya’s practice is a captivating blend of experimentation and refinement, as she explores various weaving methods using an array of materials such as wood splint, ramie, rice straw, and paper.

Her work often features non-vessel forms that highlight the unique interplay between structure and material. Takamiya’s approach involves wrapping, tying, and plaiting techniques, resulting in intricate, sculptural pieces that showcase her mastery over both form and texture.

Takamiya is part of a distinguished group of basketmakers, inspired by Hisako Sekijima’s pioneering basket technology, which has evolved into a new method of three-dimensional modeling. Since 1986, this influential group has continued to push the boundaries of basketry, contributing significantly to the field.

Last, but certainly not least, we honored the late artist Zofia Butrymowicz, a pioneering figure in East European textile art. Butrymowicz is remembered for her innovative approach to weaving, which she referred to as “loom thinking.” This technique involved working directly on the loom without a prepared cartoon, allowing for spontaneous and dynamic creations.

Butrymowicz excelled in the wool gobelin technique, utilizing handspun wools that were often rough and irregular to create striking and textured pieces. Her work frequently emphasized color, reflecting her deep interest in experimentation and new artistic expressions. Throughout her career, Butrymowicz’s contributions to the art world were celebrated globally, and her legacy continues to inspire.

Her unique approach and dedication to pushing the boundaries of textile art have left an indelible mark. We’re privileged to feature her remarkable work, celebrating her innovative spirit and enduring influence.

Thank you for following along with our latest features and updates. We’re excited to share more as we approach the launch of Ways of Seeing. Don’t forget to reserve your spot for the exhibition and stay tuned for further details!

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Join us this week, through Sunday May 12, at 6 pm to see our Spring Art in the Barn exhibition, Discourse: art across generations and continents. Traffic has been steady, including a guided tour for 15 people on Tuesday, but we still have slots available for gallery appointments and drop ins.

Viewers will enjoy 150+ works by more than 60 artists from 20 countries. Many people take two trips through the space to ensure they have not missed anything.

While here they learn more about works in the show including Irina Kolesnikova’s Spectator, a filmstrip- like group of woven portraits of her alter ego. She places him in discomfiting situations.  “Sometimes the events happening around him are frightening,” Kolesnikova says, “he wants to go away, to run far away. But curiosity makes him come back again, secretly observing, trying to memorize all impressions.”

James Bassler’s This Old House, is another work that encourages viewers to take a closer work and consider its inspiration and origins. “Over a year ago, a friend gave me a book, Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson,” Bassler writes. “It  caused me to begin yet another weaving of a flag, which includes references to the textile traditions of Africa.  In my early days of learning how to weave, the late 60s and early 70s, I wove many samples, and after weaving, experimented with batik and dyeing.  After all these years, those woven samples — maybe eight or ten of them —  were sewn together to become the surface on which the flag would eventually, after about a year, emerge.”

Same Difference by John McQueen draws appreciative comments (“That’s clever!” “I get it.”) when people learn its backstory. It’s comprised of three items on pedestals made of sticks tied with waxed linen — a wooden sump pump, the skeleton of a bonsai tree, and a representation of the elephant god Ganesh made of tied twigs. The items seem to have been chosen randomly, but they are not. Each draws water from the ground and uses it to slake thirsty crops and people, trees and animals.

Wendy Wahl’s work in Discourse explores inversion — a reversal of position, order, form, or relationship — and requires people to take a closer look. Wahl writes that she reassembles encyclopedia pages because of their symbolism, conceptual reference, and unique paper quality.  “My interactions with these materials,” she writes, “are meditative. These pieces are created by deconstructing the books, rolling and pinching the individual parts, and, like a puzzle, fitting them to the panel. The interconnected spiral elements become the picture plane that explores dimension, direction, texture, color, and reflection.” 

The evocative forms of Rachel Max’s work draw viewers in for inspection and introspection. Over the last few years, Max has been making forms that explore notions of infinity and time. The title for her piece in this exhibition, Caesura, came to her while she was making it. “I was thinking about the composition, working out where the weave should become less dense and where one section would end and another begin. I wanted to create a visual interruption, my equivalent to a break in music or a pause. In poetry, I discovered,  this is called Caesura.”

There are dozens of works to discover at Discourse: art across generations and continents and five days remaining to join us. Hope we’ll see you!

Schedule a visit
Times to visit Discourse: art across generations and continents can be scheduled on POSH. 

Exhibition Details:
Discourse: art across generations and continents
Through May 12, 2024
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT 06897

Gallery Dates/Hours:
Wednesday May 8th through Saturday, May 11th: 10am to 5pm (40 visitors/ hour)
Sunday, May 12th: 11am to 6pm [Final Day] (40 visitors/ hour)
Schedule your visit at POSH.

Safety protocols: 
POSH reservations strongly encouraged • No narrow heels please 

Catalog:
A full-color catalog, browngrotta arts’ 59th, Discourse: art across generations and continents, with an essay by Erika Diamond, Artist | Curator | Associate Director of CVA Galleries | Chautauqua Institution, will be published by the browngrotta arts in May 2024 in conjunction with the exhibition.

Upcoming:
browngrotta arts will present a talkthrough of slides from Discourse on Zoom, Art on the Rocks: art art talkthrough with a twist, on Friday, June 11th at 7 pm EST.

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The nearly 50 artists in Allies for Art are from 21 different countries — 18 NATO members and 3 NATO applicants. Their work reflects diverse perspectives and experiences. The exhibition includes art created under occupation, in the ‘60s through the 80s, art by those who left repressive governments in Hungary, Romania and Spain, and art by other artists who left Russia in later years. Allies for Art also includes current works created by European artists including Gudrun Pagter of Denmark, Åse Ljones of Norway, Włodmierz Cygan of Poland, Ceca Georgieva of Bulgaria and, artists new to browngrotta arts, including Esmé Hofman of the Netherlands, Aby Mackie of Spain and Baiba Osite of Latvia.

You can also learn more about the exhibition in the Allies for Art full-color catalog, which includes lush images and details shots and an essay by Kate Bonansinga, Director, School of Art, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio available on our website.

VIEW EXHIBITION ONLINE: Artsy
VIEW EXHIBITION IN PRINT: Order an Allies for Art catalog

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NYTM
New York Textile Month
New York City and nearby locations
https://www.textilemonth.nyc

In New York, it’s NYTM — New York Textile Month.  That means range of activities — talks, films, studio visits, workshops, an in-window exhibition at Bergdorf Goodman, exhibitions at Mana Contemporary and elsewhere, and Eva Hesse’s Expanded Expansion at the Guggenheim — all celebrating textile art, making and conservation. Check out the NYTM website for suggestions, times, and dates.

Contemporary Weaving Artist Series 6: Kyoko Kumai
Through November 6, 2022
Nakahechi Museum of Art
891 Kinro Nakahechi-machi
Tanabe-shi Wakayama-ken Japan
Tel; 0739-65-0390 
https://www.tokyoartbeat.com/en/events/-/2022%2Fcontemporary-weaving-artist-series-vi-kyoko-kumai

Since 2017, Tanabe City Museum of Art has been presenting Contemporary Weaving, an exhibition series that showcases outstanding contemporary weavers who create world-class works by combining traditional and unique materials and techniques with new weaving expressions that reflect the times. This year’s Contemporary Weaving Artist Series 6 features the art of Kyoko Kumai (1943), who has expanded the world of weaving through her innovative use of metallic threads, and continues to develop a variety of expressions that evoke light and wind.

Intellectual Beauty
2nd International Exhibition of Textile Art and Mixed Media
Museu Textil 
September 1 – February 28, 2022
Virtual
https://www.museutextil.com

Rodrigo Franzao founded a fully envisioned virtual museum that focuses on the work of artists who “use textile strategies as support for their creations.” For Intellectual Beauty, Fanzao has gathered 43 artists from 18 countries, who have used their “sensitive reality to introduce to the beholder the sensorial perceptions of a reality emancipated from rules and theory, free and absorbed by inspiration.” You can view the entire exhibition, 116 artworks, including two by Jeannet Leenderste, online.

Contextile 2022
September 3 – October 31, 2022
Guimarães, Portugal

Contextile 2022 – Contemporary Textile Art Biennial celebrates its 10th Anniversary this year. The exhibition features 57 works by 50 artists from 34 countries chosen for their high creativity, originality and technical competence around the textile element, by construction, theme, concept or material used, as well as their adherence to the concept of Contextile 2022: RE-MAKE.  Among the artists included are Neha Puri Dhir of India. In addition, the Contextile organizers selected Norway as its invited country and are presenting work from 13 Norwegian textile artists including Åse Ljones.

X International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art, “25 Years World Textile Art”
From November 3rd to December 15th, 2022
Miami International Fine Art (MIFA)
5900 NW 74th Ave
Miami, FL 33166
Colombia Consulate
280 Aragon Ave Coral Gables, FL 33134

This year 2022, WTA celebrates its 25th anniversary with the X International Biennial “25 YEARS WTA”, from October through December 2022. For the 10 th Biennial, more than ten countries will be interconnected to celebrate WTA history through salons featuring 25 artists each. A number of artists will have worked displayed in connection with this exhibition including Anneke Klein.

Allies for Art: Work from NATO-related countries
October 8-16, 2022
browngrotta arts
Wilton, Connecticut
http://www.browngrotta.com/Pages/calendar.php

Mindful of the impact that poitical events can have on artists and their art, browngrotta arts will present to work of nearly 50 artists from 21 NATO-related countries in Europe whose work reflects diverse perspectives and experiences. Allies for Art: Work from NATO-related countries (October 8 – 16, 2022) will include art created under occupation, in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, art by those who left Hungary, Spain and Romania while occupied, and who left Russia in later years, including Jolanta Owidzka, Zofia Butrymowicz, and Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet of Poland and Luba Krejci and Jan Hladik of Czechoslovakia, Ceca Georgieva of Bulgaria, Gyöngy Laky (Hungary/US), Ritzi Jacobi (Romania/Germany), Adela Akers (Spain/US), Aleksandra Stoyanov (Ukraine/Israel) and Irina Kolineskova (Russia/Germany). Allies for Art will also include recently created art by artists living in Europe, including works by Gudrun Pagter of Denmark, Åse Ljones of Norway, Ulla-Maija Vikman of Finland, Heidrun Schimmel of Germany, Lilla Kulka and Włodmierz Cygan of Poland, and, five artists new to browngrotta arts, including, Esmé Hofman of the Netherlands, Aby Mackie of Spain and Baiba Osite of Latvia.

Reserve your space on Eventbrite.

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This piece comes from renowned Russian artist, Irina Kolesnikova. Kolesnikova created this piece amid the pandemic, where she was able to take the time to reflect and do a deeper dive into herself; the end result was a series of powerful works titled Letters from Quarantine.

Around and A Round comes from internationally recognized textile artist, Norma Minkowitz. Often, Minkowitz works with fiber to create transparent mixed media sculptures – creating work that is at times fragile and relates to the human form and forms from nature. When asked about her artwork as a whole, Minkowitz said: 

“I seek mystery in the shadows of the work. The netting’s effect is to blur the shape within. There is often paint on the surface, which can at times be invisible and at other times obvious depending on the light, another important element of my work. I want the openness to convey a sense of energy as the viewer moves around the sculpture. My work retains implications of containment and psychological complexity, while focusing on the human form and often the land-scape. I am engaged in a process that weaves the personal and universal together. The interlacing suggests a delicate quality symbolic of the human condition, but conversely, the pieces could also imply the strength of steel mesh. In many of my works twigs and branches are left inside, and are visible in an eerie way through the exterior of the sculpture, often suggesting connections to the human skeletal or circulatory systems.” 

These woven tapestries come from talented Danish artist, Gudrun Pagter. In Pagter’s work, she often uses lines and shapes to achieve a tension and a spatial effect, with inspiration drawn from architecture. Pagter’s minimalism is emblematic of the shared sensibilities of Scandinavian and Japanese artists, popularly termed Japandi.

This one-of-a-kind contemporary piece comes from the late Masakazu Kobayashi. When interviewed, Kobayashi once stated that when creating his own work he searches for an equilibrium between his capacity as a creator and the energy of the world around him.

“In my own work, I search for an equilibrium between my capacity as a creator and the energy of the world around me,”  said Kobayashi. ‘When I am able to find this equilibrium, my works exist on their own. Among the works I have created are projects that incorporate several styles and emphasize primary colors. In creating such combinations, I want the viewer to experience the resonating chords that come from each element of the work.”

Toshio Sekiji is a Japanese artist widely known for his exploration of merging cultures in his complex collages and weavings. Often, Sekiji uses repurposed newspapers, maps and book pages within his artwork. The end result is the creation of new stories atop the old – intertwining strips of paper from various cultures, rewriting messages and imaging a harmonious confluence of disparate cultures, languages and nationalities.

If you like this lineup, be sure to keep your eye out for the artwork we will be highlighting throughout December. We have another round of impressive artwork coming your way! 

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Danish artist Grethe Wittrock’s work includes expanses of twisted paper strands in single colors — minimal and simple yet powerful expressions of what Finnish Designer Alvar Aalto called “the language of materials.” Wittrock observed the similar appreciation for minimalism firsthand when she traveled to Japan and studied with Japanese paper makers and renowned indigo dyer, Shihoko Fukomoto. “I started to uncover what Nordic sensibilities are by living abroad,” Wittrock says. “I lived in Kyoto, and saw an aesthetic in Japanese design similar to the Nordic tradition. You could say that there is an agreement that less is more. As they say in the Nordic countries ‘even less is even more.’”

Japanese artists have made similar observations. Tamiko Kawata, born in Japan, but living in New York for many years, reports working as an artist/designer position with a prominent glass company in Tokyo after four years of sculpture composition, architectural drawing and photography courses at University. “In those years, I often discussed the affinities of Scandinavian craft works with my colleagues. ‘Why do we appreciate skilful craft works? How can we produce them with a similar approach to understanding the skills in handicrafts and understanding the natural materials and the appreciation for simplicity that we share ?’” Kawata’s very first design, a set of crystal glass bowls, were exhibited with Scandinavian works in the SEIBU department store in Tokyo in 1959. They were purchased by Swedish artist/designer Stig Lindbergh who pronounced them the “most original glass designs in Japan.” It was so thrilling to me,” she says. “I was just 23 years old.” 

Gudrun Pagter is another Danish artist whose abstract works in primary colors reflect the modernism for which Scandinavia is known. “From the exotic and foreign land we find an aesthetically common understanding of a minimalist idiom,” Pagter says, “an understanding of the core of a composition — that is, cutting off everything ‘unnecessary.'” Pagter expresses this minimalist idiom in her work. In Thin, Green Horizon, her composition expresses a form of landscape. It might be the horizon between heaven and sea, or between heaven and earth, she says. In any case, the framed field shifts the horizontal line. There is a shade of difference between the two blue colors, the blue is slightly lighter in the framed field. The thin, horizontal line is made with many shades of blue and green thin linen. The main color is blue, but the thin, green horizon is essential to the whole picture. Pagter notes, “My old weaving teacher at the School of Design, said 40 years ago, ‘you have to be brave to express oneself simply, as a minimalist’ … I’m brave enough now, maybe!!”  

A series of simple weavings by Kay Sekimachi, a Japanese-American artist who lives in California, is a testament to restraint. Her spare markings on handwoven fabrics reference the paintings of Paul Klee and Agnes Martin .”Order is fundamental,” to the Japanese approach, observes Hema Interiors in its style blog, “but it’s an order based on balance, fleeing from symmetry and overly controlled spaces. The decorative elements are important to give personal brushstrokes to the spaces, always resorting to simple and organic elements”  (“Wabi Sabi Interiors,” Comparar Estilios de Decoración, Hema Interiors).

Join us at Japandi: shared aesthetics and influences to see more examples of ways these elements are exchanged and expressed. The exhibition features 39 artists from Japan, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The hours of exhibtion are: Opening and Artist Reception: Saturday, September 25th: 11 to 6; Sunday, September 26th: 11 to 6; Monday, September 27th through Saturday October 2nd: 10 to 5; Sunday, October 3rd: 11 to 6; Advanced time reservations are mandatory; Appropriate Covid protocols will be followed. There will be a full-color catalog prepared for the exhibition available at browngrotta.com on September 24th.

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Lookout
Mas de Barberans, Spain
An exhibition of the best of European basketmaking, Lookout, has been curated by Monica Guilera and Tim Johnson at the Museu de la Pauma, Mas de Barberans in Catalonia, Spain until September 30, 2021. The collection includes work by Dail Behennah, Mary Butcher and makers from Poland, France, Italy, Crimea and elsewhere. There is a beautifully illustrated 52-page catalogue which you can view online here.

Archie Brennan Goes Pop
Edinburgh, Scotland
The Dovecot Studios in Scotland, is celebrating the extraordinary career of Archie Brennan in Archie Brennan Goes Pop through August 21, 2021. The Studios describe the exhibition as: “Bringing together over 80 tapestries as well as archive material, this is a chance to delve into the world of a master of modern tapestry. Sharp, witty, and immensely talented, Brennan began his 60-year weaving career at Dovecot and was an innovator and iconoclast who inspired weavers all over the world from Papua New Guinea to Australia.” Brennan’s contribution as a pop artist has not been recognized, until now.

ArtTapestry 6
Jyväskylä, Finland
2020’s ArtTapestry finally opened and has begun traveling, opening in Denmark and now installed in Finland and the Museum of Central Finland in Jyväskylä, through September 2022. Next it travels to Sweden. 43 works of 40 artists, from 16 countries were selected. Among the artists included are Gudren Pagter of Denmark, Wlodzimierz Cygan of Poland, Nancy Koenigsberg of the US and Helena Hernmarck, originally from Sweden but now of the US. For more information and to see the catalog, visit here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e55552503aff02749460670/t/602e819c27e2076281e2ef40/1613660584707/Artapestry6_catalog_2021.pdf

Sheila Hicks: Cosmic Arrivals
Milan, Italy
The Francesca Minini gallery opened an exhibition of Sheila Hick’s work last week in Milan. Sheila Hicks: Cosmic Arrivals runs until July 17, 2021 (http://www.francescaminini.it/exhibition). The gallery quotes Hicks in its press release, “Nature determines everything. Climate and light influence space. Each of my works inhabits in a particular place, respects its history, its temperature, its architecture.” Fibers are unmade and recreated in her hands, according to the release. Cloth is thus the cornerstone of a way of thinking that was developed under the influence of her mentor [Josef] Albers and continued through the search for a new construction of color and the reuse of textile fibers, often considered functional or decorative.

Making Nuno: Japanese Textile Innovation from Sudō Reiko
London, UK
Japan House in London hosts an extraordinary exhibition, Making Nuno: Japanese Textile Innovation from Sudō Reiko, showcasing the innovative work of Japanese textile designer Sudō Reiko. Sudō is renowned for pushing boundaries of textile production and championing new methods of sustainable manufacturing. She has been the design director of leading textile design firm Nuno for over 30 years and is a member of the Japan Design Committee. Her fabric designs combine Japanese craft traditions with new engineering techniques and unusual combinations of diverse materials such as silk, hand-made washi (Japanese paper), nylon tape and thermoplastic. Through July 11, 2021: https://www.japanhouselondon.uk/whats-on/2021/exhibition-making-nuno-japanese-textile-innovation-from-sudo-reiko/.

Textilés
Mons, France
BeCraft in collaboration with the City of Mons and Les Drapiers, Contemporary Art Center (Liège) has installed a provocative exhibit, Textilés through August 1, 2021. www.becraft.org

Happy travels!

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This year’s annual Art in the Barn exhibition at browngrotta arts, art + identity: an international view, opens on April 27th with an Artists Reception and Opening from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 276 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT. From April 28th through May 5th, you can view the exhibition from 10 to 5.

In art + identity, more than 50 artists explore the influence that birthplace, residence, travel and study have had on the development of their art. The work reflects the influence of five continents and includes art textiles, sculpture and ceramics and mixed media. The artists have lived and worked in 22 countries including Japan, Finland, Nigeria, India, Russia, Israel, Canada, Chile and the US. These artists’ approaches to the theme are decidedly individual but similarities and differences among their works create an intriguing dialogue about the influence of culture and geography and spur questions about the universality of art.

Among the artists participating is Gudrun Pagter of Denmark, whose work reflects a serene and abstract Scandinavian sensibility. American Mary Merkel-Hess is inspired by the prairie of her native Midwest. Her work, Last Light, was inspired by a line from Willa Cather, “the whole prairie was like the bush that burned with fire and was not consumed.”  Stéphanie Jacques from Belgium looked inward to explore identity, creating a structure of cubes and parallelepipeds made of willow. “I dance in my studio,” she says, “searching through my movement for a relationship with this form.  I set up the camera and take photos.  My face is veiled. The frame is fixed.  As the shooting advances, a story appears….A series of portraits follows….Each image incarnates a new state, another state.” American artist Norma Minkowitz’ work, The Path, also speaks to the personal and the universal — “the path we each take regardless of who we are or where we began.” 

For other artists, that sense of place is broader, transcending boundaries and reflecting effects of increased exchange among artists. “This exhibition of works transcends international borders, ” notes Dawn MacNutt of Canada, whose work in art + identity was inspired by ancient Greek sculpture viewed at the Metropolitan in New York and then in Greece. “My association with some of these artists goes back to the Lausanne Biennale in 1985 and the American Craft Museum’s Fiber: Five Decades in 1995. browngrotta arts provides an ongoing museum/gallery/melting pot of the work of international artists in textile materials and techniques. It also fosters the meeting together of the artists themselves…a rare opportunity and the icing on the cake!”

art + identity: an international view, April 27th-May 5th. browngrotta arts, 276 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT 06897. 203.834.0623. For more info, visit: www.browngrotta.com.

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