Tag: Norma Minkowitz

Art Assembled in August

Chat, Jiro Yonezawa
114jy Chat, Jiro Yonezawa, bamboo, steel, urushi lacquer, 33.25” x 17” x 3.125”, 2024. Photo by Tom Grotta

August was relaxed month for us but an active one for our New this Week features. First up was Chat by Jiro Yonezawa. Yonezawa reinterprets the traditions of Japanese bamboo craft, to create imaginative sculptural forms. Chat is from a series of works created to express conversation, communication and the acts of conveying feelings. Yonezawa wants to capture the atmosphere of these interactions. The artist says that he returned to this series, which he began a few years ago, because in today’s world, he sees conflicts and various troubles increasing. “I feel that genuine communication between people is becoming less frequent. This led me to visit this series once again, hoping that viewers can sense the atmosphere of dialogue and connection.”

Prospects for Hope, Anneke Klein
9akl Prospects for Hope, Anneke Klein, hemp, cotton, linen, acrylic paint, 36″ x 55″ x 1″, 2015. Photo by Tom Grotta

Self expression through weaving came about for Anneke Klein, she says, after she wrestled with cold hard materials during her education as a goldsmith. Her heart chose the warmth, softness, and comfort of yarns, and she retrained herself quickly in weaving techniques. Through weaving, she creates a variety of shapes, textures, and structures — looking through a symbolic lens at the everyday and the things that touch her emotionally. Her work reflects a fascination for rhythm and repetition. In Prospects for Hope, Klein uses pictograms to abstractly suggest various expressions of optimism. A widespread sense of discomfort is a concern for the artist, particularly among people she knows who are facing severe setbacks and suffering. Prospects for Hope offers a vision rooted in optimism. The work encourages viewers to see that after a dark period there always will be new perspectives.

Wind in the Grasses, Lizzie Farey
24lf Wind in the Grasses, Lizzie Farey, willow, 31” x 31.25”, 2025. Photo by Tom Grotta

Lizzie Farey grew up surrounded by countryside. In rural Scotland, where she developed a deep love and fascination for woodlands, coastal paths, and remote places. Through her work, primarily in willow, she seeks to immerse viewers in that landscape. In her work, Farey wants to recreate her intense feelings for the landscape. “I must capture the experience of being with nature when making a basket,” she says. Her experience has encouraged her to develop extensive knowledge of the plants featured in her work; she grows more than 20 varieties of willow.

Scream, Norma Minkowitz
116nm Scream, Norma Minkowitz, hog gut, fiber, 6.5″ x 5.5″ x 6″, 1982. Photo by Tom Grotta

Coated in black acrylic paint, Scream by Norma Minkowitz is a crocheted object stiffened to create a plaster-like consistency, then enhanced by the application of thread. The process creates an intriguing surface, introducing a bas relief of concept, energy, and movement. Minkowitz has created highlights with paint. Her work speaks about enclosures and entrapment. Minkowitz often dwells on the cycles of death and regeneration. “As my work evolves,” she says, “one thing remains consistent: I am engaged in creating works that weave the personal and universal together.

More ahead in September …


Save the Date: Beauty is Resistance Opens at browngrotta arts on October 11th

We’ll be exploring Beauty as Resistance: art as antidote in our 2025 Fall “Art in the Barn” exhibition at browngrotta arts in Wilton, Connecticut. The exhibition will explore how aesthetic creation—particularly within textile, fiber, and material-based practices—serves as a form of defiance, cultural preservation, and political voice. In an age of political polarization, ecological crisis, and rampant commodification, beauty might seem like a luxury—or a distraction. But the artists in this exhibition harness the power of beauty not as escape but as agency: to mourn, to protest, to remember, to heal, and to imagine

Beauty is Resistance by Norma Minkowitz
Frozen in Time by Norma Minkowitz. Photo by Tom Grotta

Beauty is Resistance will bring together more than two dozen artists, spanning generations, mediums, and geographies. The works fall loosely into four subthemes. Norma Minkowitz’s Frozen in Time reflects Threads of Memory, artworks in which fiber as a tool to archive personal, cultural, and collective memory and experience. Minkowitz’s work is about once-used personal items, perhaps ancient relics, in ominous black, showing every detail in time. A diary, combined with combs, various brushes, documenting a persons lived life, hidden messages inside a book that can’t be opened, are all frozen in time. These tell a story or trigger a question for the viewer.  

Reading Between the Lines
Fragments Of A Life Lived 3 by Aby Mackie. Photo courtesy of Aby Mackie

Reading Between the Lines includes works that subtly or explicitly engage with, politics, ecology, and resistance. Aby Mackie, an artist located in Spain, works with discarded historic textiles, deconstructing and reconfiguring them. “In reworking with what was cast aside,” Mackie says, “my practice becomes a form of quiet resistance—honoring forgotten stories and reasserting the enduring significance of craft in the face of environmental and cultural neglect.” In the 80s, Ed Rossbach created aseries of assemblages, titled El Salvador. In the series, Rossbach used camouflage cloth and sticks to protest US covert activity in that South American country. More personal is Yong Joo Kim’s Weight of Commitment: 4 Years Old. For Kim, making art is less a means of expression and more a residue of her efforts to sustain her life under pressure and weight. She creates art works she hopes are seen as symbols of resilience, beauty, and the transformation of struggle into creation. Weight of Commitment illustrates that approach. “As light and shadow played across the work,” Kim says, “the silhouette of a child appeared—seemingly around four years old—floating in mid-air. This moment was meaningful, because it was completely unintended, and I made it while I was going through IVF.”

Collider by Randy Walker
Collider by Randy Walker. Photo by Tom Grotta

Randy Walker’s Collider reflects another of Beauty’s subthemes, Radical Ornament, in which art reclaims ornamentation, surface and structure as valid forms of protest and joy. Trained as an architect, Walker’s work straddles several boundaries of craft, sculpture, and installation.His works create dialogues — solidity and transparency; structural stability and collapse; visibility and invisibility.

Donald and his Habsburg Empire by James Bassler
Donald and his Habsburg Empire by James Bassler. Photo by Tom Grotta

Finally, for Ritual and Reverence, the fourth subtheme, we’ll exhibit work grounded in indigenous craft and sacred traditions reimagined. James Bassler’s Donald and his Habsburg Empire, is a comment on both the historical and the contemporary attitude of arrogance and entitlement that has existed throughout history. Bassler references the Habsburgs, the ruling family of Austria, 1276-1918 and of Spain,1516-1700, that gave the world elitism through birthright, with no regard to proven achievement, noting that today in the US, the Kardashian and the Donald Trump model has made the acquisition of vast sums of money and profit an alarming societal objective, an elitism that values profits over people. In 2016, Bassler was invited to an exhibition at the Museo Textile de Oaxaca in Mexico that utilized feathered yarn, created of Canadian feathers, by spinners in Mexico who based the yarns on ones created in the 17th century. “After reviewing all of the material, I couldn’t help but notice that on many of the ancient textiles in which the feathers were used promoted the double-headed eagle of the Habsburg Empire, a reminder to those subjugated as to who was in charge,” Bassler says. “With that in mind and knowing that the feathers came from Canadian ducks, it was a logical step to create the double-headed ducks. The Donald Trump arrogance factor developed as the presidential debates materialized.”

Other artists whose work will be exhibited in Beauty is Resistance include: Kay Sekimachi (US), Neha Puri Dhir (IN), Karyl Sisson (US), Naoko Serino (JP), Laura Foster Nicholson (US), Jin-Sook So (KR), Irina Kolesnikova (DE), James Bassler (US), Gyöngy Laky (US), Lia Cook (US), and Eduardo Portillo and María Dávila (VE). 

Reserve a time to visit Beauty as Resistance: art as antidote : HERE

Beauty as Resistance: art as antidote
October 11 – 19, 2025

Location: 
browngrotta arts, 276 Ridgefield Road Wilton, CT 06897 

Times:
Saturday, October 11th: 11AM to 6PM [Opening & Artist Reception] 
Sunday,  October 12th: 11AM to 6PM
Monday, October 13th through  Saturday, October 18th: 10AM to 5PM
Sunday, October 19th: 11AM to 6PM [Final Day]

Safety Protocol:
No narrow heels please — barn floors.


We Get Great Press

We’ve been a bit lax at tooting our own horn this past year. Here’s a round-up of press mentions of artists that we work with and of browngrotta arts and our events — — digital and in print. 


We were thrilled in January when Artsy reported that fiber art is experiencing a resurgence, a trend Artsy expects ” to take hold across the contemporary art world in 2025.” In its “Trends to Watch” item Artsy featured several artists, including Lia Cook, Adela Akers, and Sheila Hicks.  

Artsy Trends to Watch

Shortly after that, American Craft Magazine asked to do a profile on Tom, Rhonda, and browngrotta arts. We are excited that the article, A World of Fiber,” by Deborah Bishop — out now — gave us the chance to showcase so many of the artists that we promote. We appreciated the care that Deborah Bishop took with all the details and her writing that, “Among the few decades of global and multi-generational fiber arts, browngrotta arts is revered for its beautiful documentation of the craft.”

browngrotta arts American Craft Magazine feature

browngrotta arts got a nice listing in Museums1

Museums blog

Our recent exhibition, Japandí Revisited: shared influences and aesthetics, at the Wayne Art Center in Pennsylvania got a nice review in artblog  

artblog

A nice photo of works by Ulla-Maija Vikman and Mia Olsson that we loaned to the Garrido Gallery for their exhibition at the Salon Art + Design show in 2023, appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Art & Object.

Art & Object covers Salon Art + Design

Meanwhile, artists we work with were getting good coverage for their artistic pursuits and more. Hali Magazine ran a detailed and beautifully photographed article about James Bassler, whose work will be included in our upcoming exhibition, Field Notes: an art survey. In “An artist’s life,” Elaine Phipps explores his work, “within the context of his time and place in the American cultural landscape of the 1950s to the present day.” Phipps tracks the nuances of his growth and development as an artist/weaver, and the expanded world view and deep appreciation of a wide range of historic and ethnographic textile traditions that “transformed his creative process into new working methods.”

Hali James Bassler feature article

In its Fall 2024 issue, Fiber Art Now ran an insightful profile of Dutch Artist Marianne Kemp, “Achieving the Perfect Balance,” by Noelle Foye. Kemp’s work will also be in Field Works at browngrotta arts in May. Foye writes that Kemp has two parts to her weaving process. “There is the creative, poetic side of weaving — the feel, the touch, the colors. Then there is the technical side, which involves the mechanical challenges of manipulating the loom to translate the creative vision into reality.”

Marianne Kemp Fiber Art Now feature

The magazine also headlined Nancy Koenigsberg’s work, Copper Patches, in its Summer 2024 issue.

Nancy Koenigsberg in Fiber Art Now

An article in the Fall 2024/Winter 2025 issue of basketry+ Magazine looked back at the first 10 years of the National Basketry Organization, illustrated with work by Jennifer Falck Linssen, Kari Lønning, and Nancy Moore Bess. Linssen’s work will be included in Field Notes.

basketry + Kari Lønning, Nancy Moore Bess, Jennifer Falck Linssen

Norma Minkowitz’s achievements as an athlete and an artist were described in “Runner’s World” by Sara Gaynes Levy, in the January 2025 issue of Westport Lifestyle. Levy writes, “The world-record mile time for a woman aged 85-89 is nine minutes, 45 seconds, 45 tenths of a second. And it belongs to Westport resident, Norma Minkowitz, 87.” The article notes that Minkowitz is a world-renowned artist as well whose work is in 35 museum collections worldwide. “There’s a connection between running and art the way I do it,” the article quotes Minkowitz as saying. “My work is in fiber, and the process is to do this crochet stitch over and over. It’s very repetitive, as is running.” Minkowitz’s work will be included in Field Notes at browngrotta arts.

Norma Minkowitz in Westport Magazine

Last, but not at all least, the passing of Hiroyuki Shindo, an exceptional indigo artist from Japan was noted by in the selvedge blog,”Lives Well-Lived: Horoyuki Shindo (1941-2024).” 

Selvedge obituary: Hiroyuki Shindo

He was also remembered in Text, the Textile Society Magazine. Both remembrances were written by Jenny Balfour-Paul and each featured images of Shindo and his work by Tom Grotta.  

Text Magazine Hiroyuki Shindo obituary cover article

Art Assembled – New This Week in October

As October comes to a close, we’re filled with excitement as we prepare for our upcoming exhibition, Japandi Revisited: shared aesthetics and influences, opening December 7, 2024, and running through January 25, 2025 at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania Three years ago, we curated a fascinating exhibition at browngrotta arts that delved into the inspirations shared by artists in Japan and Scandinavian countries—Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark. The stories and artistic references we uncovered were so compelling that we decided to revisit this rich dialogue this winter at the Wayne Art Center. We can’t wait to share these insights with you!

Throughout October, our New This Week series introduced an array of talented artists, including Ed Rossbach, Norma Minkowitz, Laura Thomas, and Noriko Takamiya. We’re thrilled to showcase their remarkable contributions and invite you to explore their extraordinary work.

Ed Rossbach
220r Chief, Ed Rossbach, ash splints, found objects, 11.75″ x 10.5″ x 11″, 1990. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Ed Rossbach kicked off the month with his iconic sculptures that meld traditional techniques with innovative materials. Renowned as an imaginative and adept weaver, Rossbach is celebrated for his pioneering role in transforming basketry into a sculptural art form.

Rossbach expertly combines ancient weaving techniques with unorthodox materials, such as plastics and newspaper, challenging the boundaries of traditional craft. Additionally, his work often incorporates unconventional imagery and pop culture references, reflecting his innovative spirit and cultural commentary. With an eye for detail and a commitment to experimentation, Rossbach’s pieces are not only visually striking but also carry notable cultural significance.

Norma Minkowitz
Norma Minkowitz, 114nm The Seeker
pen and ink drawing, 20.25” x 16.25” x 1.5”, 2014. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Next, we featured the talented artist Norma Minkowitz, known for her innovative approach to crocheted, interlaced sculptures that are stiffened into hard mesh-like structures. For many years, Minkowitz has been exploring these techniques, achieving both structure and surface simultaneously. Minkowitz has studied drawing. In addition to “sketching” in crochet, she creates highly detailed collages with intricate drawing combined with pop and other images, like Picasso’s eyes in The Seekers.

A Fellow of the American Craft Council, Minkowitz’s work is held in numerous prestigious collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. We hope you enjoyed her work as much as we do!

Laura Thomas
12lt Cross, Laura Thomas, handwoven silk, cotton, resist indigo dye, 11″ x 11″ x 1.75″, 2023

Following Minkowitz, we turned our spotlight to artist Laura Thomas, known for her innovative approach to contemporary textiles. Since her first experience of weaving in 1996, Thomas has been thoroughly absorbed by its infinite scope for exploration and experimentation. She established her studio practice in South Wales in 2004 and has worked on a diverse range of projects, spanning public art, commercial textile design, curation, artist residencies, and creating work for exhibitions.

Thomas’s multi-faceted approach sets her apart in the woven textiles sphere, making her a distinctive voice in contemporary textile art.

Noriko Takamiya
34nt Revolving Cross, Noriko Takamiya, paper, 5.5″ x 7.75″ x 4.5″, 2024. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Lastly, we showcased 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 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 is a member of a distinguished group of innovative basketmakers, inspired by Hisako Sekijima’s pioneering basket technology, which has evolved into a new method of three-dimensional modeling. This influential group has held an annual basketry exhibition since 1986, continually pushing the boundaries of basketry and significantly contributing to the field.

As we wrap up October, we’re grateful for your continued support and interest in our artists. Stay tuned for more exciting updates as we approach the opening of Japandi Revisited and keep exploring the incredible world of textile art!

Thank you for following along with our latest features and updates. Don’t forget to reserve your spot for the upcoming exhibition, and we look forward to sharing more details soon!


Ways of Seeing: On Assembling

Ways of Seeing, our Fall art event, is mid-exhibition today. It’s a celebration of collecting and the myriad ways that people acquire and arrange art. We’ve put together some groupings within the show and thought of others. We’ll share some of them below for those of you who can’t attend in person. For example, collecting by material, even one as ubiquitous as paper, can result in a varied collection. We put together a wall of works on paper: a print using xerography by Katherine Westphal, a painting on paper by Claude Vermette, collages by Norma Minkowitz and Hideho Tanaka, an intricately folded paper work by Dail Behennah, a composition of twisted commercial paper by Wendy Wahl, and an assemblage of colored sandpaper by Marian Bijlenga.

Gallery Wall of paper works
left to right, top to bottom:
Katherine Westphal, 10w Amphora and Fern, 1993; Wendy Wahl, 2ww 7 by 7 and 22, 1999; Marian Bijlenga, 37mb Luitzen, 2019; Hideho Tanaka, 31ht Emerging 008, 2016; Norma Minkowitz, 114nm The Seeker, 2014; Claude Vermette, 126c Untitled, 1980; Dail Behennah, 56db Two Golds, 2019; Toshio Sekiji, 26ts Lacquered and Torn, 1998. Photo by Tom Grotta

A more unusual material choice — assembling items made of materials from the sea, will also result in a wildly diverse group of works. We’re showing baskets of seaweed, wall work of fish skin and fish scales, and works that incorporate sea sand and sea stones. 

Artwork with sea materials
12jle Bivalve, Jeannet Leendertse, 2023; 5ab Threading Fish, Annette Bellamy, 2023; 40mb Scale Flowers, Marian Bijlenga, 2019; 32kn Sazanami(Ripples), Keiji Nio , 2022; 35sl Coast, East Riding of Yorkshire 1-3, Sue Lawty, 2024. Photos by Tom Grotta

Collecting by artist can yield a broad mix of results. Choosing a category, like Polish, LQBTQ+ or self-taught artists, can result in considerable variation. Even a single artist, if it is one who experiments relentlessly like Jiro Yonezawa, can ground a surprising collection.

Bamboo works by Jiro Yonezawa
Jiro Yonezawa 109jy Yellow Lady Bug, 2021; 95jy Ecdysis , 2019; 64jy Ascension, 2006 92jy Orbit, 2019. Phots by Tom Grotta

There are four very different works by this artist in Ways of Seeing, and they don’t even include the wide bamboo spheres which he has created more recently. 

Works by Hisako Sekijima
Hisako Sekijima
650hs Suspended Decision, 2021; 620hs From 2 to 3 Dimensions V; 643-655hs A Line of Willow, 2020; 639-651hs Bound to Continue VII; 625hs Structural Discussion VI, 2016

Basketmaker Hisako Sekijima, who has worked in everything from cherry bark to kudzu is another example of someone who can be collected in multiples. Lia Cook is another — her practice has moved in several different and exciting ways through out her career.

Works by Lia Cook
Lia Cook 55lc Between Clouds , 1978; 4lc Crazy Quilt: Royal Remnants, 1988; 16lc Presence/Absence: Gather, 1998; 28lc Su Brain Tracts Renew, 2014. Photos by Tom Grotta

Then there are them groupings — we are showing art related to water, but even a color, like Picasso’s blue period, can be an energizing organizing principle. We’ve gathered weavings and objects that meet that criteria: 

Blue Textiles
12lt Cross, Laura Thomas, 2023; 25gs Blue Color Gradation, Grethe Sørensen, 2005; 14jle Blue Levels, Jeannet Leenderste, 2019. Photos by Tom Grotta

There are a few days to see our compilations in person. Or you can order the catalog: https://store.browngrotta.com/c-54-ways-of-seeing/

Happy Hunting!

Ways of Seeing: how individuals envision and curate their art collections

Through September 29, 2024
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road
Wilton, CT 06897
https://browngrotta.com/exhibitions

Gallery Dates/Hours:
Monday, September 23rd through Saturday, September 28th: 10am to 5pm (40 visitors/ hour) Sunday, September 29th: 11am to 6pm [Final Day] (40 visitors/ hour)

Safety protocols: 
Reservations strongly encouraged; No narrow heels please (barn floors)


Ways of Seeing Part One: The Art Aquatic

Ways of Seeing, browngrotta arts’ Fall 2024 exhibition (September 20 – 29) explores various ways that individuals envision and organize art collections. One of the three types of collections we will exhibit in Ways of Seeing is an arrangement based on a specific theme. Having a fondness for water and a location between the Norwalk River and Long Island Sound, we chose water-related art, specifically, The Art Aquatic, as our sample organizing principle.


Karyl Sisson Octopus
Flight III, Karyl Sisson, deconstructed vintage zippers, thread, 5″ x 32″ x 22″, 2013. Photo by Tom Grotta

The changeable, fluid nature of water has often been an inspiration for artists. Artists use water to convey a variety of meanings. Some are moved by water as a natural force, for others there is a more spiritual connection, and still others are interested in how humans are impacting our oceans and rivers — in each case the results are thought provoking and intriguing. 

Marian Bijlenga Fish Scales
40mb Scale Flowers, Marian Bijlenga, dyed Nile Perch fish scales, 22.375″ x 18.875″ x 2.5″, 2019

Artists in The Art Aquatic exhibition reflect that diversity of approaches. Some have made imaginative uses of water-related materials. There are patchworks of fish skins by Annette Bellamy, who spends part of each year fishing commercially and compositions of fish scales by Marian Bijlenga. Keiji Nio photographs sea scenes, uses the images in ribbons that he plaits and edges with beach sand. Jeannet Leenderste creates baskets of seaweed she forages in Maine and works with the Rockweed Coalition. “Seaweed not only creates a habitat for countless species, it sequesters carbon,” she says, “and protects our shoreline as our sea levels are rising.”

Ulla-Maija Vikman painted threads
Ulla-Maija Vikman, Biagga (Sea Wind), painted viscose and linen, 67 x 71 in, 2010. Photo by Tom Grotta

Other works in The Art Aquatic offer more abstract references to life in the deep, including Ulla-Maija Vikman’s “painting,” Biagga (Sea Wind), made of viscose threads in marine colors.  Mariette Rousseau-Vermette’s Blue Water II, made of woven tubes of beachy blue, grey, white, and yellow, evokes a sunny day at the water’s edge. Masakazu Kobayashi’s assemblage of silk-wrapped bows reflects an ocean horizon.

Ed Rossbach Fish basket
Fish Trap, Ed Rossbach, 14″ x 11″ x 11″, 1988. Photo by Tom Grotta

A third series of works offer watery imagery, like Judy Mulford’s Aging by the Sea which incorporates a conch shell and a tiny boat covered in knotless netting, Ed Rossbach’s Fish Trap Basket, with a whimsical fish motif, the mermaid in Norma Minkowitz’s sculpture, My Cup Runneth Over, and Karyl Sisson’s Flight III, a sea-creature-like sculpture of vintage zippers.

Floating paper boats by Jane Balsgaard and Merja Winqvist. Tubular textile by Mariette-Rousseau-Vermette
Paper boats by Jane Balsgaard and Merja Winqvist, Tubular textile by Mariette-Rousseau-Vermette. Photo by Tom Grotta

More literal still, there are the nautical object interpretations included in the exhibition, like Mercedes Vicente‘s shell of cotton canvas. Jane Balsgaard’s Relief floats alongside Merja Winqvist’s gridded boat – both are made of paper. Text from Moby Dick is etched on Call Me Ishmael, Lawrence LaBianca’s ivory-colored boat sculpture. La Bianca has created a body of work that engages aquatic environments. “The tools we apply to nature—to contain it, shape it, understand it and categorize it also have a profound impact upon it,” he says. LaBianca references the impetus to measure, understand, contain, and manipulate nature that animates his art – that impetus is one that can animate collectors of art as well.

Wax linen cover shell by Judy Mulford
Judy Mulford, Aging-By the Sea , shell, waxed linen, waxed linen, silver, beads, pearls, silver spoon, sand, plexiglas, 11″ x 11″ x 10″, 2004. Photo by Tom Grotta

Join us at Ways of Seeing and learn more.

Exhibition Details:
Ways of Seeing
exploring ways individuals envision and curate art collections
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road
Wilton, CT 06897

Gallery Dates/Hours:
Saturday, September 21st: 11am to 6pm [Opening & Artist Reception]
Sunday, September 22nd: 11am to 6pm (40 visitors/ hour)
Monday, September 23rd through Saturday,September 28th: 10am to 5pm (40 visitors/ hour)
Sunday, September 29th: 11am to 6pm [Final Day] (40 visitors/ hour)
browngrotta.com

Schedule your visit at POSH. 
Safety protocols: Reservations strongly encouraged; No narrow heels please (barn floors)

Art Assembled – New This Week in June

Summer has brought sunshine, adventures, and an abundance of art to browngrotta arts! We’ve been immersed in exhibitions, shining a spotlight on our fabulous artists, and proudly launched our catalog for Discourse, art across generations and continents.

As June draws to a close, join us in recapping our featured artists from the New This Week series, including Norma Minkowitz, Rachel Max, Sue Lawty, and Hisako Sekijima. Let’s dive in!

Norma Minkowitz
105nm Swept Away, Norma Minkowitz, fiber and mixed media, 40″ x 40″, 2022. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Starting off the month, we featured the work of artist Norma Minkowitz. Renowned sculptor Norma Minkowitz has dedicated years to exploring the potential of crocheted sculptures, intricately interlaced and hardened into mesh-like structures.

Her artworks seamlessly blend structure and surface, offering profound reflections on themes of enclosure and entrapment. Minkowitz frequently contemplates the cycles of life and renewal, leaving twigs and branches embedded within her sculptures. These elements peek through the exterior, evoking comparisons to human skeletal or circulatory systems.

We are lucky to be able to work with her, and we hope everyone else enjoyed her feature as much as we did!

Rachel Max
13rm Caesura, Rachel Max, woven cane sculpture, plaited and twined, dyed
11” x 16.5” x 8”, 2023-24. Photo by Tom Grotta.

Next, we featured the talented artist Rachel Max, known for her innovative approach to contemporary basketry from her London base. Max’s artistic journey explores the intricate interplay between lace and traditional basketmaking techniques, resulting in finely woven sculptural pieces designed for interior spaces.

Her creative process involves meticulous refinement, exploration, and development of delicate openwork structures, where the juxtaposition of precise patterns with more relaxed weaves emerges as a recurring motif. Throughout her work, color plays a pivotal role, serving as a unifying element essential to Max’s artistic expression.

Sue Lawty
33sl Juncture, Sue Lawty, lead, 15.25″ x 12.25″ x 1.5″, 2023. Photo by Tom Grotta

We then turned our spotlight to artist Sue Lawty; renowned for her extensive experience as an artist, designer, and educator, with works displayed in prestigious collections worldwide, including a notable residency at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Lawty’s creative practice delves deep into emotional, spiritual, and physical connections with the land. Through intuitive and meticulous exploration of materials and construction techniques, she constructs unique textual languages. It’s no surprise her contributions are revered across the art world.

Hisako Sekijima
668=680 Grasp V, Hisako Sekijima, walnut, black and kan-chiku bamboo, 9” x 11” x 5.5”, 2023. Photo by Tom Grotta

Last, but certainly not least, we featured the work of artist Hisako Sekijima. Sekijima is known in the art world for her sculptural baskets created with diverse materials including cherry, hibiscus and cedar bark, kudzu, and bamboo.

She describes herself as a perpetual experimenter, fascinated by concepts of order and disorder, connection and disconnection. Her artistic pursuits encompass a wide range of techniques and themes, from binding and wrapping space to exploring spheres, handles, and the interplay of materials.

We look forward to continuing this exploration with you in the months ahead. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories and artists featured in our upcoming series!


Discourse — the book, out now

Discourse: across generations catalog

Our 59th catalog, Discourse: art across generations and continents, is now available from the browngrotta.com website. As you may know, we produce our catalogs in house. If you’ve purchased a copy, you should have gotten a Handle With Care insert that reads: ”Each browngrotta arts catalog is individually printed and hand bound. Once you have a copy in hand, please treat it gently. If you crack the spine to see if the pages will flutter out, they just might. So, please don’t. Thanks.” Our catalogs “have never been anything but labors of love,” Glenn Adamson observed on the occasion of our 50th catalog, “quite literally products of a family concern, a cottage industry.” (“Beyond Measure,” Glenn Adamson, Volume 50: Chronicling FIber Art for Three Decadesbrowngrotta arts, Wilton, CT, 2020.)

New Press

This Spring we had a brief delay in producing while we acquired a new printing press — smaller, faster, and with more bells and whistles. Our previous press, which we bought second-hand, had given up the ghost in May. But it did not give up until browngrotta arts had published more than a million pages, mostly on fiber art and artists. Our new printer has expanded features: it can handle heavier and larger sheets and spot varnish.

Mika Watanabe spread
Mika Watanabe spread

In Discourse: art across generations and continents, you’ll find work by 61 artists from 20 countries. There are 176 pages and hundreds of color photographs, including details. There are also short compilations of collections, exhibitions, and awards for each artist included.

Federica Luzzi spread
Federica Luzzi spread

Also included in the Discourse catalog is an insightful essay by Erika Diamond, an artist and curator and the Associate Director of CVA Galleries at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. In “Consonance of Strings,” Diamond identifies several themes that influence the artists in Discourse. These include textiles like Federica Luzzi’s and Mika Watanabe’s that mirror the human body, works like Stéphanie Jacques’ exploration of the void, that express a yearning for connection, and those  finding order in chaos and harmony in disorder like the subversively “crushed” baskets by Polly Barton. Diamond makes broader observations about textiles’ ability to provide interconnections and common ground for viewers. She compares textiles to quantum physics’ theory of vibrating strings of energy making up the world. Textiles, she sees as “… lines in space — stitches, braids, weavings — moving and bending in search of unity and reconciliation between even the most vastly different materials and ideas.”

installation spread
installation spread: works by Adela Akers, Thomas Hucker, Norma Minkowitz, Neha Puri Dhir, John McQueen on the left and Lia Cook, Ed Rossbach , Sue Lawty on the right

Get your copy of the Discourse catalog from our website: https://store.browngrotta.com/c53-discourse-art-across-generations-and-continents/. It’s a good read!


Five Days Remain to See Discourse at browngrotta arts in Wilton, CT

from left to right: works by Hiroko Sato-Pijanowski, Aby Mackie, Tim Johnson, Jane Balsgaard, Gyöngy Laky, Gizella Warburton, Margareta Ahlstedt-Willandt photographed through a basket by John McQueen. Photo by Tom Grotta

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.”

Irina Kolesnikova Spectator weaving
28ik Spectator, Irina Kolesnikova, handwoven flax, silk, wood, 58.5″ x 43.25″ x 1″, 2013. Photo by Tom Grotta

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.”

James Bassler Flag weaving
20jbas This Old House, James Bassler, multiple cotton and silk warps, patched together, multiple sisal, silk, linen, agave, ramie wefts, synthetic and natural dyes. batik plain and wedge-weave construction
27” x 42”, 2024. Photo by Tom Grotta

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.

John McQueen Same Difference three willow sculptures
21jm Same Difference, John McQueen, wood, sticks, bonsai, 54” x 60” x 24”, 2013, photo by Tom Grotta

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.” 

44ww Inversion, 2023/24, Wendy Wahl, encyclopedia britannica pages, wood panel, 40″ x 30″, 2024. Photo by Tom Grotta

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.”

Sculptural blue basket form by Rachel Max
13rm Caesura, Rachel Max, woven cane sculpture, plaited and twined, dyed, 11” x 16.5” x 8”, 2023-24. Photo by Tom Grotta

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.


Discourse, Our Spring 2024 Exhibition, and the Theory of “Unexpected Red”

Discourse art installation: Pagter, Klein, Rage, Luzzi, Hatekayama
Works by Gudrun Pagter, Anneke Klein, Lija Rage, Federica Luzzi, Norie Norie Hatakeyama. Photo by Tom Grotta

In curating our exhibitions, we develop an idea, then begin to compile art to build out the concept. We tweak the theme and design the installation in response to the what arrives. The process, and the artists we work with, always deliver surprises. 

The impetus for this Spring’s Discourse: art across generations and continents exhibition was formed by our hanging abstract weavings by Warren Seelig from 1976, one white and black, one red and black, next to a strikingly kindred work of black and red and grey and off-white by Blair Tate from 2023. The works seemed to have something to say to one another. We realized we had other works from different time periods and artists who approached the same material and techniques very differently. The result: Discourse, an exhibition inviting dialogue, discourse, comparison and contrast.

Warren Seelig and Blair Tate tapestries
Warren Seelig’s White Plus and White, 1976 tapestries, Blair Tate On Balance, 2024. Photo by Tom Grotta

As we compiled work for Discourse, an unanticipated subtheme emerged. The color red featured in several works that would be included. There was Anneke Klein’s Dialogue that we wanted to include, for obvious reasons. Gudrun Pagter sent us Red. Lija Rage sent us Leaves. Jin-Sook So offered us three red bowls, Federica Luzzi a dramatic wall sculpture, Red Shell No. 4, and Mary Merkel-Hess a red-tipped basket. After much online research, we had discovered the maker of a work from the estate of Mariette Rousseau-Vermette that we also wanted to include. It was Margareta Ahlstedt-Willandt of Finland and again, the work featured a good amount of red.  

Textiles by Margareta Ahlstedt-Willandt and Federica Luzzi
1awm Nåky Vision II, Margareta Ahlstedt-Willandt, fabric, 20″ x 19″ x 2″, 1950’s; 17fl Red Shell n.4, Federica Luzzi, dyed linen, waxed cotton, acrylic wool thread, 24” x 15” x 6.5”, 2024. Photo by Tom Grotta

There are more than 100 works in Discourse and most of them are not red. But red has a way of making itself known — as the works in the exhibition do. As we were planning, a theory, “Unexpected Red,” hit Tik-Tok, and, as Tik-Tok sensations are wont to do, then hit The New York Times, the Washington Post and Elle Decor. “Splashes of red really do just make anything mysterious, sexy even,” the Washington Post, quotes an email from Colette van den Thillart, a designer in Toronto. “Red is so dynamic, dangerous, and commanding. It can set an environment alight, which is why this trend makes total sense to me.” (“Designers say ‘unexpected red’ really works. Here’s how to use it.The theory making the rounds on social media can add a little intrigue to any room,” Washington Post, Kathryn O’Shea-Evans, March 16, 2024.)

71jss Soul of a Bowl I-III, Jin Sook So, steel mesh, electroplaited silver, pure gold leaf, acrylic, steel thread
6” x 12.75” x 9.75”, each, 2024; 212mm Another Autumn, Mary Merkel Hess, paper cord, paper, 28″ x 18″ x 12″, 2023. Photo by Tom Grotta

There’s a scientific basis for red’s preeminence, notes Ingrid Fetell Lee, who hosts The Aesthetics of Joy blog. In studies, red has been shown to capture and hold attention in emotional situations better than other colors and that exposure to red light increases blood pressure, respiratory rate, skin conductance, and eye blinking, all measures of an increase in what psychologists call arousal, a physiological measure of excitement. Many evolutionary biologists believe that our color vision evolved in large part to help our primate ancestors find ripe fruits and young leaves (which naturally appear red) among the green leaves of the treetop canopy. “So perhaps ‘unexpected red’ in a home functions more like seeing a bowl of ripe cherries than a cut to the finger,” Lee hypothesizes, like “a bright and exciting burst of joy.”

Bursts of joy is what we hope you’ll find at Discourse (May 4 – 12). Not just red; we’ve got works in shades of green, others in blue, beige, yellow and orange — lots of works in paper and natural materials, works by 50 artists from 18 countries. Schedule your visit to Discourse now.

Green artwork by Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, Norma Minkowitz, Mary Merkel-Hess, Neda Al-hilali
572mr Printemps “Spring”, Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, 40″ x 86″, 1988; 17fl Red Shell n.4, 106nm Whispers, Norma Minkowitz, mixed media, 15.75″ x 15.75″ x 15.75″, 2003; 211mm Sky and Water, Mary Merkel-Hess, paper cord, paper, 21″ x 19″ x 13″, 2023; 1na Crystal Planet, Neda Al-hilali, plaited color paper, acrylic, ink drawing, paper, 43″ x 49″ x 2.5″, 1982. Photo by Tom Grotta

Exhibition Details:
Discourse: art across generations and continents
May 4 – May 12, 2024
browngrotta arts
276 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT 06897

Gallery Dates/Hours:
Saturday, May 4th: 11am to 6pm [Opening & Artist Reception]
Sunday, May 5th: 11am to 6pm (40 visitors/ hour)
Monday, May 6th 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.