Rachel Max is  looking forward to reading a new biography of Anni Albers, by Nicholas Fox Weber (Anni Albers: a life), which is coming out in April next year. “But,” she writes, “whenever I need a burst of inspiration, I dip into the Writings and Conversations, by Barbara Hepworth. I’ve always loved her work. Max also recommends Craftland by James Fox as a thoughtful and timely journey through Britain’s “endangered” crafts and heritage. 

“In a digital age where handmade skill is gradually being chiseled away by mass production and AI, Fox traverses both time and land to meet some of the people keeping our need for craftsmanship alive. As a maker, I am extremely conscious of techniques – not reviving them as such, but reviewing them to make something new. Admittedly, and perhaps because I live and work in a city, I take lots for granted – how agriculture, for example, has shaped our landscape with hedgerows and stone walls. I’ve always known that Sheffield is famous for its steel production, that Birmingham has a long history of jewelery making, and that Somerset is known for willow weaving. Each area has its own unique way of doing things – stone walls and baskets vary from region to region. I’ve walked past the British Library many times without considering who designed and carved the lettering on the facade. The bells of Big Ben toll across our screens every New Year, but, like many, I take for granted the skill and expertise that went into making and tuning them. 

Fox’s writing is poetic and contemplative but what comes acoss most in this book are the skills, dedication and determination of all the people he met along the way,” Max says. “Aside from the rush weaver, Felicity Irons, many names were unknown to me, but these names and their workmanship are hardly invisible, they are part of a far greater picture – our social and cultural history. So much so that once forgotten trades have become embedded in our own names and language. Fox reminds us to look around, to notice and to take note of crafts enduring legacy.”

“I can recommend What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory, by Brian Eno and Bette A.,” Randy Walker writes. “It’s a small book (literally 3” x 5”) consisting of 122 refreshing pages written and illustrated in children’s book fashion — just my style. I savor the thoughts, and only read a few pages at a time so I can contemplate them for a while.” The book is billed as “an inspiring call to imagine a different future.”

“My favorite book of the year was about photographer, Edward Curtis — Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan,” writes Polly Sutton. “I recently got to view photos at the Rainier Club in Seattle where he lived for many years and paid for his room and board with pictures.” 

According to the publisher’s notes, Curtis spent three decades documenting the stories and rituals of more than 80 North American tribes. It took tremendous perseverance  ​— ​ 10 years alone to persuade the Hopi to allow him to observe their Snake Dance ceremony. And the undertaking changed him profoundly, from detached observer to outraged advocate. Curtis would amass more than 40,000 photographs and 10,000 audio recordings, and he is credited with making the first narrative documentary film. The Ranier Club has an important collection of his works.

Exhibition catalogs often inspire recommendations; Europe was apparently the source for fiber exhibitions in the last 12 months, based on Heidrun Schimmel’s update. The expansive exhibition of Sheila Hicks: a little bit of a lot of things was a highlight this year In Germany, Schimmel writes. The exhibition was shown in Kunsthalle Düsseldorf from October 2024 to February 2025.  “A very good catalog of the same name was published,” she writes. It chronicles 50 years of the artist’s work and features a lay-flat sewn binding and an exposed spine, A Little Bit of a Lot of Things is designed to emulate Hicks’ playful, imaginative practice. 

“Another good exhibition, Soft Power, was shown in the Museum Das Minsk, Potsdam, Germany, in 2024, she says. You can order the exhibition catalog (112 pages) and take on line tour here: https://dasminsk.de/en/exhibitions/4478/soft_power.  A truly comprehensive exhibition, Textile Manifestos—From Bauhaus to Soft Sculpture, was displayed in Switzerland, in the Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich, she says. In addition to the fiber all-stars — Hicks, Tawney, Abakanowicz — the exhibition included intriguing artists Gunta Stölz, Elsi Giaque, Lia Cook, and Masakazu Kobayashi. In conjunction, the Museum recommends the volume, Textiles Manifestos.

Exhibition catalogs were also the inspiration for both Karyl Sisson’s and Gyöngy Laky’s recommendation: the Ruth Asawa retrospective — first in San Francisco, now in New York. (If you are on the East Coast, you have until February 7, 2026 to see it at MoMA.) “The breadth of her work is astounding,” Karyl Sisson says. Gyöngy Laky also recommended the retrospective catalog, Ruth Asawa: Retrospective. She and her husband Tom Layton were friends with Ruth Asawa. “Thinking about Ruth Asawa reminds me that the US has overcome threats to our Democracy before,” Laky writes. “During another time challenging our democratic values, in World War II, the Asawa family members were sent to internment camps. The terrible and misguided 1942 Executive Order eventually incarcerated 120,000 people of Japanese descent. It was, however, as a child in those wretched concentration camps, that the talent and creative interests of Ruth Asawa were nurtured. In 1946, at the age of 20, Ruth went to Black Mountain College where she met her future husband, architect Albert Lanier. At Black Mountain College her drawing teacher, Ilya Bolotowsky, connected her drawing with her wire work describing it as drawing in space. She began her looped-wire sculptures there after being introduced to basketry techniques in Mexico”. The following year Asawa’s work was shown at SF MoMA for the first time — only to be the subject of an extensive retrospective nearly 75 years later.

Asawa left her mark on cultural history in other ways. She married her husband Albert in 1949 in San Francisco when interracial marriages were still illegal in many parts of the US. The partnership lasted 59 years!  Asawa left a legacy within the larger Bay Area community, too. She co-founded the Alvarado Arts Workshop for elementary school children in 1968 – – now the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. She was deeply devoted to arts education. Laky writes that an Imogen Cunningham photo from the 1950s greeted visitors to the SFMoMA exhibition accompanied by a quote: “An artist is an ordinary person who can take ordinary things and make them special.” And, Laky says, Asawa did just that. 

Stéphanie Jacques is looking forward to visiting Magdalena Abakanowicz: The Fabric of Life through April 12, 2026 at the Bourdelle Museum in Paris. “I love this museum and I’m excited to experience the works of Magdalena Abakanowicz. The catalog looks fascinating.” https://www.bourdelle.paris.fr/visiter/expositions/magdalena-abakanowicz-la-trame-de-lexistence In additional to exhibition attendance, Jacques has an ambitious reading list planned for next year. “Books are there to recharge us and open us up to other perspectives,” she writes. There are five books she’d like to read in early 2026:

To learn more about the path Rodin took to create his sculpture of Balzac: his approach, his doubts, his relationship to the real body, etc, Jacques is going to read Dérobades: Rodin et Balzac en robe de chambre by Marine Kisiel — only available in French. “Phyllida Barlow is an artist whose work I admire,” she writes. “I haven’t yet had the chance to see her pieces in person, and this book, In the Studio: Phyllida Barlow , text by Frances Morris, seems like an opportunity to discover more about her work and her creative process. Reading about other artists’ work is enriching and often prompts me to reflect on my own practice.” Three books on basketry in all its complexity and variety are also on Jacques’ list. She describes these as, “an inexhaustible source of inspiration and wonder; skills where the universal and the unique meet.”

They are Contemporary Basketry: New Directions from Innovative Artists Worldwide by Carol Eckert and Janet Koplos, Kishies and Cuddies: A Guide to the Traditional Basketry of Shetland, by Lois Walpole, and The Material Culture of Basketry: Practice, Skill, and Embodied Knowledge, eds. Stephanie Bunn and Victoria Mitchell. And Jacques may return to The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, since she has done so regularly since first reading it over two years ago. “I have even opened it at random just to hear her voice,” she says. “It has everything: history and the upheavals of personal lives, political engagement, love, men, women, creation…” 

Gizella Warburton recommended three books about our relationship to nature: Wild Service: Why Nature Needs You, eds. Nick Hayes and Jon Moses, The Language of Trees: a Rewilding of Literature and Language, by Katie Holten and Is a River Alive? by Robert MacFarlane. Wild Service calls for mass reconnection to the land and a commitment to its restoration. A national bestseller, The Language of Trees invites readers to discover an unexpected and imaginative language to better read and write the natural world around us and reclaim our relationship with it. MacFarlane has been called “the great nature writer … of this generation.” The publisher says that Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. They are not textile-related, says Warburton, but each offers “a hopeful and meaningful read.” Amen to that!

Next Week:
More book recommendations— this time from browngrotta arts …

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If an exhibition takes place but there is no catalog to document it, did anyone see it? Certainly not enough people have seen it, as far as browngrotta arts is concerned.  That’s why we produce a catalog for nearly every exhibition we host.

We had hundreds of people visit our Fall 2025 exhibition,  Beauty is Resistance: art as antidote. But we also cowry to share the remarkable works in Beauty with even more people through our installation video and Zoom talkthrough, both on our YouTube channel, and through the print version of the show, a catalog (our 61st), available on our website.

The 132-page catalog contains 125 full-color images. There are full view and detail images of each of the featured works in the exhibition. There are statements about each work in the catalog. The works in the exhibition fell loosely into four subthemes: Reading Between the Lines, Threads of Memory, Radical Ornament, and Ritual and Reverence, and the catalog identifies the category that each work falls into.

Elizabeth Essner, Windgate Associate Curator at the Museum of Art, Houston contributed an insightful essay to the catalog, “Looking at Beauty.” Essner writes about the role of nature in many of the artists’ work — for materials, lessons, and poetic inspiration. She examines varying historic conceptions of beauty, subjective, objective, and embodied, and discusses the significance of prevailing cultural aesthetics. in summarizing beauty’s pivotal place in art, Essner quotes late art critic Peter Schjeldahl (1942 – 2022) who predicted that in the future, “beauty will be what it always has been and, despite everything, is now in furtive and inarticulate ways: an irrepressible, anarchic, healing human response without which life is a mistake.”

Order your copy on our website. If it’s a gift, let us know at art@browngrotta.com before December 15th and we will gift wrap your copy before we send it.

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As the mix between red’s passion and white’s purity, traditionally, pink symbolizes love, nurture and compassion. It also evokes feelings of comfort, warmth and hope. And these are the themes that many of our artists were channeling in these unsettling times. 

“The language of textiles speaks of entanglements and connectivity ” explains Caroline Bartlett, “of continuity and severance, and pink might be considered as a field for nurture.” For Bartlett, her work Juncture, suggests “a point of time, especially one made critical or important by a concurrence of circumstances.”

Stéphanie Jacques works with a dark pink wire cable in works like Retournement en cours IV to create figures that illustrate transformation. “The cable consists of two twisted copper wires sheathed in plastic film; one white, the other dark pink,” she says. “The varnish that covers them gives a beautiful finish. Sometimes the white is twisted with a red or orange thread, but it’s the dark pink that I prefer.”

Polly Barton’s Pivot is imbued with pink and other colors. Barton finds solace in “[C]reating a surface to rub color in a variety of forms; dye, pigment, pastel, ink. I weave the liminal space between a painted surface and the woven structure.”

Totems, by Wlodimierz Cygan, is a study in color — pink is only one of the shades it reveals through fiber optic lighting. “The introduction of the motif of changing light into this system,” he observes, “turned this small weaving form into a magical, magnetizing object, encouraging meditation.”

Neha Puri Dhir writes eloquently about the color in her work Shifting Horizons. This intimate textile artwork, inspired by Akbar Padamsee’s Metascapes, transforms handwoven silk into a whisper of unseen change. “I have painted the silk with earthy colors,” she says, “gentle teals for my quiet unease, warm yellows for a flicker of hope, and soft pinks for the tender ache in my heart — capturing a shift I feel but cannot see, like a storm brewing beyond the horizon.”

In her work, Emotional Summer, which includes pink and other pastels, Young-ok Shin has a message to convey. “I want to express the power passed down from tradition as work full of vitality that is given meaning, rather than innovation.”

Also expressing a message are Shed on Ice and Dark Shed. “Since moving to a rural community in southern Indiana nearly 20 years ago,” Laura Foster Nicholson reports, “I continue to be fascinated by the simple forms and light of the landscapes.” The mood in Shed on Ice, with its early-morning, rose-colored sky reflects Nicholson’s concern about climate change. “The farms, which seem so evocatively beautiful,” she says, “are contributing radically to climate change.”

You can see more on our website: browngrotta.com.

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But, that’s not all that October brought to browngrotta arts. We proudly launched the much-anticipated Vignettes exhibition, a harmonious fusion of three distinct showcases. Our in-person exhibition opened its doors, allowing art enthusiasts to experience the masterful craftsmanship of wood sculptor Dorothy Gill Barnes, the visionary weaving and surface design of Glen Kaufman, and the captivating diversity of An Abundance of Objects, featuring an array of baskets, ceramics, and sculptures crafted by over three dozen talented artists.

As we bid farewell to October, we invite you to join us in revisiting the highlights from our New This Week features and to explore the rich tapestry of Vignettes, now viewable on our website. At browngrotta arts, art and creativity continue to converge in a breathtaking display of talent and inspiration.

Welcome to another edition of our New This Week series, where we embark on a journey through the world of contemporary art, one artist at a time. To kick off the month of October, we delve into the captivating creations of Tim Johnson, a skilled artist and basketmaker hailing from the United Kingdom.

With a rich history spanning nearly three decades, Tim Johnson has dedicated himself to exploring the intricate relationships between materials, place, nature, and culture. His artistic voyage is a fusion of traditional craftsmanship and innovative techniques, influenced by his extensive travels across the globe.

What sets Tim Johnson apart is his ability to breathe new life into humble materials and age-old practices. He blurs the lines between art and craft, inviting us to reconsider how we perceive both. Notably, you can find his work showcased in the current online version of the Vignettes exhibition at browngrotta arts, a testament to his lasting impact on the world of contemporary art.

As we look back on our features throughout October, it’s clear that Gyöngy Laky is a remarkable artist who has left an indelible mark on the world of sculpture. Her ability to blend tradition and innovation, creating sculptures that transcend boundaries, is nothing short of inspiring.

Laky’s influence extends far and wide, with her works featured in exhibitions spanning continents. Her early recognition for her linear sculptures, rooted in the architectural techniques of textile arts, marked the beginning of a remarkable career. Beyond gallery spaces, she has ventured into the realm of site-specific outdoor installations and contributed to land art projects in various corners of the globe, showcasing her adaptability and creativity.

We’re thrilled to have shared her captivating artwork with you this past month, and we invite you to explore more of her work, including her presence in the Vignettes exhibition, online November 22.

Up next, we were privileged to feature the remarkable works of the late, renowned artist Glen Kaufman. Kaufman’s artistic legacy, spanning over four remarkable decades, left an indelible mark on the world of art.

Kaufman’s artistic odyssey began with a foundation in textural weaving and macramé, setting the stage for a lifelong pursuit of creative discovery. His restless spirit and boundless imagination led him to traverse uncharted territories in the realm of surface design. With a fusion of traditional techniques and contemporary sensibilities, he crafted sculptural forms that challenged the boundaries of artistic expression.

In the later stages of his career, Kaufman’s work underwent a transformation, reflecting a profound connection with Japanese aesthetics and architecture. His pieces, adorned with intricate photo collages and the application of gold and silver leaf, demonstrated a deep appreciation for the beauty of Japan’s artistic heritage.

As we celebrated Kaufman’s contributions this past month, we were reminded that true artistry transcends the constraints of time and place. We’re honored to continue his legacy by featuring his artistry in our ongoing Vignettes exhibition, where his works continue to inspire and captivate.

Continuing our artistic journey through October, we cast our spotlight on Stéphanie Jacques, an artist whose work revolves around the art of connection. Jacques’s unique approach centers on weaving together elements that seemingly exist on opposite ends of the spectrum: hard and soft, old and new, valuable and trivial, conscious and unconscious, human and plant.

Her chosen mediums include wood, wicker, and clay, each one a canvas for her imaginative exploration. Basketry, cutting, and intricate assembly serve as both her tools and her muse, propelling her to discover novel solutions to age-old questions.

With each sculpture and installation, she delves deeper into the notion of connection, weaving together the threads of life in her own unique way. And yes, you’ll also find her work thoughtfully showcased in our ongoing Vignettes exhibition, a testament to her exceptional talent and boundless creativity.

And last, but certainly not least, we highlighted the work of artist Dona Look. Look is a skilled basket maker from the beautiful landscapes of Wisconsin. Look’s art is deeply connected to the nature that surrounds her. She starts her creative process by gathering bark from the region’s birch trees. With this simple yet extraordinary material, she weaves intricate baskets, capturing the essence of the woodlands in her craft. To hold everything together, she uses silk thread, turning these natural elements into stunning works of art.

We were delighted to feature this talented artist’s work in the ongoing Vignettes exhibition, where her creations shine alongside those of other exceptional artists.

October has been more than just a showcase of talent; it’s been a month of expansion and connection. The launch of our Vignettes exhibition, both in-person and online, has allowed us to bridge physical and digital spaces, bringing art enthusiasts closer to the remarkable works of Dorothy Gill Barnes, Glen Kaufman, and a myriad of other gifted artists. If you want to learn more about the artists and artwork in Vignettes: one venue; three exhibitions, join our Zoom presentation on November 17 at 7 pm EST: Art on the Rocks: an exhibition talkthrough with spirits!

As we bid farewell to this month, we extend our gratitude to our dedicated community of artists, collectors, and art lovers. We look forward to seeing what November brings!

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New York, NY
A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes 
through February 4, 2024
Cooper Hewitt
2 East 91st Street
New York, NY 10128
https://www.cooperhewitt.org/channel/dorothy-liebes/

From the 1930s through the 1960s, American textile designer, weaver, and color authority Dorothy Liebes (1897–1972) collaborated with some of the most prominent architects and designers of the time, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Dreyfuss, Donald Deskey, Raymond Loewy, and Samuel Marx. Fashion designers, including Pauline Trigère, Adrian, and Bonnie Cashin, also used her fabrics, yielding some of the most distinctively American fashions of the mid-20th century. Artist Glen Kaufman and Mariette Rousseau-Vermette worked in her studios in New York and San Francisco. The “Liebes Look”—which combined vivid color, lush texture, and often a glint of metallic—became inextricably linked with the American modern aesthetic. This exhibition features more than 175 works—including textiles, textile samples, fashion, furniture, documents, and photographs — to highlight the powerful — but largely unacknowledged impact she has had on 20th-century design. 

Stockholm, Sweden
Beauty in the Unexpected: Modern and Contemporary Crafts
through January 21, 2024
Södra Blasieholmshamnen 2
Stockholm, Sweden
https://www.nationalmuseum.se/en/exhibitions/beauty-and-the-unexpected

Nationalmuseum 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 Nationalmuseum’s collections and will provide a possibility to look at American Crafts in the Nordic context. Fiber artists have a good representation – Lenore Tawney,Lewis Knauss, Warren Seelig, Gyöngy Laky, Yvonne Bobroowicz, Deborah Rappoport, Nancy Worden, Rise Nagin, and Ted Hallman are all included in the collection.

Washington, DC
Shared Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational
through March 31, 2024
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
1661 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC
https://www.si.edu/exhibitions/sharing-honors-and-burdens-renwick-invitational-2023:event-exhib-6575

The Renwick Invitational 2023 features artists Joe Feddersen (Arrow Lakes/Okanagan), Lily Hope (Tlingit), Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Erica Lord (Athabaskan/Iñupiat), Geo Neptune (Passamaquoddy), and Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe). Together, these artists present a fresh and nuanced vision of Native American art. The artists were selected for their work that expresses the honors and burdens that Native artists balance as they carry forward their cultural traditions. These artists highlight principles of respect, reciprocity, and responsibility through their work that addresses themes of environmentalism, displacement, and cultural connectedness.

Riga, Latvia
Exodus: Baiba Osite
7th Riga International Textile and Fiber Art Triennial
through September 19, 2023
Dubulti Art Station
Riga, Latvia
https://www.lnmm.lv/en/museum-of-decorative-arts-and-design/news/programme-of-the-7th-riga-international-textile-and-fibre-art-triennial-quo-vadis-139

Baiba Osīte‘s wide-scope solo exhibition Exodus is part of the 7th Riga International Textile and Fiber Art Triennial QUO VADIS? The curator, Inga Šteimane, writes about Osite’s “paintings” made of pieces of wood washed out of the sea – “both landscape and abstract in conjunction, as well as archaic and modern ecological. The personal exhibition Exodus was created in a similar synthesis – the historical and the philosophically abstract are together, just like the experienced, felt and imagined.” For the artist, exodus [leaving] is a biblical theme that tells the story of the people of Israel coming out of slavery in Egypt, passing through the sea, escaping their persecutors and gaining their land and freedom. Osite says she has always been interested in this topic from the perspective of an individual’s life, but currently it is particularly relevant to the fate of one nation and humanity globally.” She sees parallels with what’s happening in Ukraine right now. “[T]hey’re fighting for their freedom,” she notes, “for their independence, for their respect among other nations. They’re just fighting it out in a very hard fight. And I think it doesn’t leave anyone indifferent.”

Denbighshire, UK
Natural (Re)Sources
through September 24, 2023
Ruthin Gallery
Gallery 1
Denbighshire, UK
through September 24, 2023
http://ruthincraftcentre.org.uk/whats-on/coming-soon-gallery-1/

Natural (Re)Sources looks at the origin of an artist’s chosen materials. This doesn’t mean that the finished work looks as if it has just been collected from a forest floor, or dug from the ground without intervention, but rather that the material basis for work that is “of the earth” in various forms. The exhibition is curated by Gregory Parsons and includes work by Laura Bacon and  Gizella K Warburton.

East Hampton NY
Maren Hassinger: Monuments
through December 31, 2023
LongHouse Reserve
133 Hands Creek Road
East Hampton NY 
Artist: Maren Hassinger

A native of Los Angeles, Maren Hassinger (b.1947) is a multimedia artist whose practice bridges fiber arts, installation, performance, and sculpture. Incorporating everyday materials such as wire, rope, newspapers, plastic bags, petals, and dirt, Hassinger’s art explores the subjects of movement, family, love, nature, the environment, consumerism, identity, and race.

East Hampton NY
A Summer Arrangement: Object & Thing
weekends through December 31, 2023
LongHouse Reserve
133 Hands Creek Road
East Hampton NY
Exhibition: A Summer Arrangement

While you are at LongHouse, visit A Summer Arrangement: Object & Thing at LongHouse features works by several artists and designers, including works from the collection of LongHouse founder Jack Lenor Larsen (1927-2020).

Quebec, Canada
International Linen Biennial in Portneuf (BILP)
through October 1, 2023
Heritage sites throughout Deschambault-Grondines 
Quebec, Canada
https://www.artemorbida.com/biennale-internationale-du-lin-de-portneuf-bilp-2023/?lang=en

Anneke Klein (the Netherlands) Blair Tate (United States of America) Stéphanie Jacques (Belgium), Carole Frève (Québec) are all participants in the international Biennial of Linen in Portneuf, Canada now on view. The BILP is a cultural event showcasing works of professional artists exploring new ideas inspired by linen and flax, covering both technical and conceptual aspects. The subject of flax and linen is addressed through themes as varied as contemporary visual arts, crafts and design. The event takes place in different heritage sites of Deschambault-Grondines every odd year, since 2005.

Denver, Colorado
Indigo 
Denver Botanic Garden
York Street Location
Denver, Colorado
through November 5, 2023

Open now, the Indigo exhibition at the Denver Botanic Garden features work by Polly Barton, Eduardo Portillo and Mariá Dávila, Chiyoko Tanaka, Hiroyuki Shindo, and Yeonsoon Chang, as well as other artists from across the globe. 

London, UK
Japanese Contemporary Craft
Victoria & Albert Museum
Japan, Room 45, The Toshiba Gallery
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL
through July 2025
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1731010/memory-sculpture-kumai-kyoko/

The V&A’s spectacular Japan collections feature ceramics, lacquer, arms and armour, woodwork, metalwork, textiles and dress, prints, paintings, sculpture and modern and contemporary studio crafts. Currently on display, Memory by Kyoko Kumai.

Enjoy!

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To kick off our New This Week series in November, we introduced the work of Esmé Hofman. Hofman is an artist that grew up and resides in the Netherlands. She is is known for taking a modern approach to her work. When asked about her process, she has said when creating she is often prepared to look beyond the borders of traditional handcraft – which gives her the freedom to explore creative possibilities.

 “As a traditional maker there are three pillars in my work, which are equally important,” said Esmé Hofman. “These are function, materials and technique. By letting the function go, I get more freedom to place an emphasis on form. This gives me freedom to explore new ways of making.”

The second piece we have for our readers is Dobbel Domino, which was created by Åse Ljones. Ljones is a renowned Norwegian artist who is widely known in the art world for her complex hand embroidered pieces, which incorporate stitch drawings that Ljones meticulously details. When asked about her art and process Ljones said:

“To embroider by hand takes time. It is a slow process that gives room for silence. I seek silence. In silence, I retrieve memories and find new paths forward. In all my work as an artist I have eliminated the extraneous. I’ve cultivated simplicity to approach the core of myself, in myself, with fewer measures.” 

Things got even more impressive throughout the month with art from Belgium-based artist, Stéphanie Jacques. She is known for being a relentless reinventer when it comes to her art. Figures created by Jacques are clearly humanoid, but less literal.

For a long time I have been trying to create a figure that stands upright,” said Stéphanie Jacques. “All of this is related to the questions I ask myself about femininity and sexual identity. My driving forces are the emotions, the wants and the impossibilities that are particular to me. Once all this comes out, I seek to make it resonate in others. My work is not a lament, but a place where I can transform things to go on.”

Last, but not least, we bring you the work of Polish artist, Wlodzimierz Cygan. Cygan has been creating (and teaching) groundbreaking textile creations for years and has been exhibited all around the world. Growing up, Cygan lived in a city in Poland called Łódź, which has very strong textile traditions that inspired him to create the works of art you see today.

“When trying to determine why the means of artistic expression in tapestry was becoming archaic,” said Wlodzimierz Cygan. “I realized that one of the reasons might have to do with the custom of treating the threads of the weft as the chief medium of the visual message. . . These observations led me to wonder how the artistic language of textiles might benefit from a warp whose strands would not be parallel and flat but convergent, curved or three dimensional ….”

As always, we hope you enjoyed the art we’ve highlighted throughout November. If you’re keen on any of the pieces that we’ve highlighted, works from Allies for Art: Work from NATO-related countries are viewable and available for purchase on Artsy. The exhibition has been documented in a catalog produced by browngrotta arts. To get a print copy for yourself, click here.

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Brussels, Belgium
MUTE
Through December 18, 2022
Stephanie Jaxx Gallery
53 Rue Joseph Stallaert 4
1050 Brussel, Belgium
galerie-stephanie-jaax.com

Stéphanie Jacques shows her work with that of Yannick Carlier in MUTE: Lively, between two fields of the body, in Brussels through December 18, 2022.

Hobro, Denmark
Artifact: Nature recreated – Jane Balsgaard, Vibeke Glarbo & Britt Smelvær
November 26, 2022 – February 25, 2023
Artists Hobro
St. Torv, 9500 
Hobro, Denmark
https://kunstetagerne-dk.translate.goog/kunst/kalender/kalender2022.php?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=da&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

Jane Balsgaard, Vibeke Glarbo and Britt Smelvær create installations and individual works that examine the relationship between nature and art.

Commissions

Shoko Fukuda has been producing 185 small commissioned works for a residential project in London since April. This Fall the works were installed on the walls of the two bedrooms. For another commission, in Japan, she produced samples for Japanese hotels.

The Hague, the Netherlands
Anni and Josef Albers
Through January 23, 2023
Kunstmuseum Den Haag
Stadhouderslaan 41
2517 HV The Hague, the Netherlands

Featuring over 200 works – including textiles, paintings, graphic art, photographs, furniture and drawings – this exhibition shows how Anni Albers (1899 -1994) evolved into a true pioneer of modern textile art, and highlights the process of artistic development Josef Albers (1888-1976) underwent which culminated in his internationally renowned Homage to the Square series which comprises innumerable colour studies in a square format.

Clinton, New Jersey
Moving Lines
Thread Hijack
Through Jan. 8, 2023
Hunterdon Museum of Art
7 Lower Center Street
Clinton, NJ 08809
https://www.hunterdonartmuseum.org/exhibitions/amie-adelman-moving-lines/
https://www.hunterdonartmuseum.org/exhibitions/thread-hijack/

Moving Lines is a room-sized site-specific thread installation, Amie Adelman creates a moment of mesmerizing focus that invites viewers in for a closer inspection. Learn More:  https://tinyurl.com/rtejba5n. Thread Hijack explores what happens when artists take thread in new and interesting directions, away from its original utilitarian purpose. The six artists in Thread Hijack!Thread Hijack — Abdolreza Aminlari, Caroline Burton, Natasha Das, Jessie Henson, Holly Miller, and Raymond Saá — employ thread as an artmaking material or tool to expand or replace conventional mediums such as drawing, painting, collage, and printmaking. They use thread to draw a line, compose a shape, record a gesture, or glue elements together. Several stitch directly on paper using commercial sewing machines or hand sewing. Others innovate with needle and thread to make marks on a painted canvas. They all exploit the tension between fragility and strength that is intrinsic to thread. Learn more from this insightful review: “Adventures in embroidery: ‘Thread Hijack’ at Hunterdon Art Museum showcases consistent creativity,” Tris McCall, October 27, 2022, NJArts.net.

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Among the artists represented in the browngrotta arts’ collection are several who recreate the human figure in three-dimensions with provocative results. Dawn MacNutt of Canada is known for her nearly life-size figures of willow and seagrass. The sculpture and architecture of ancient Greece has been a major influence on her vision. “I first experienced pre-classical Greek sculpture in the hallways of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as a teenager in the 1950s.” she says. “When I visited Greece 40 years later, the marble human forms resonated even more strongly.  The posture and attitude of ancient Greek sculpture reflects forms as fresh and iconic as today… sometimes formal … sometimes relaxed. Her works, like Praise North and Praise South, reflect the marble human forms, columns, caryatids …  sometimes truncated… found outdoors as well as in museums in Greece. They were inspired by two study and work trips to Greece just before and after the millennium, 1995 and 2000.

Figures created by Stéphanie Jacques of Belgium are clearly humanoid, but less literal. “For a long time I have been trying to create a figure that stands upright,” Jacques explain. “…all of this is related to the questions I ask myself about femininity and sexual identity. My driving forces are the emotions, the wants and the impossibilities that are particular to me. Once all this comes out, I seek to make it resonate in others. My work is not a lament, but a place where I can transform things to go on.”

As Artsy has chronicled, drawn, painted, and sculpted images of human beings can be found in Han Dynasty tombs in China, in Mayan art, and even in the nearly 30,000-year-old wall drawings of the Chauvet Caves in southern France. In incorporating the figure into her work, Mary Giles responded to the graphic power of the male image in early art, such as the petroglyphs of the Southwest, aerial views of prehistoric land art, and the rudimentary figures of Native American baskets. She used similar representations of men on her baskets. Her husband, architect, Jim Harris, told the Racine Art Museum, “Sometimes they were made with the bodies of the men created as part of the coiling process but with the arms and legs added as three-dimensional elements, Some baskets were supported by the legs of the figures. Later, this idea evolved into totems with coiled bodies, the legs as part of a supporting armature, and the arms as free elements. She made over 50 totems! They were small and large, singular and in pairs. They were embellished with everything from puka shells gathered at the beach, to all sorts of metal elements both found and individually made by Mary.”

In 2007, Giles made a piece with individual male figures made of wrapped wire placed directly into the wall. It was composed of hundreds of torched copper wire men arranged outwardly from dense to sparse. She continued this work by placing the figures onto panels. These dealt with Giles’ concerns about population. “They are not baskets,” she explained , “but the men they incorporate have been on my vessels for nearly 30 years. I am still working with these ideas of overpopulation, density and boundaries,” she said in 2013 in her remarks on being awarded the Master of the Medium Award for Fiber from the James Renwick Alliance.

Where Mary Giles featured male figures in her works, Judy Mulford’s figures were nearly always women — mothers, sisters, daughters. “My work is autobiographical, personal, graphic and narrative,” she said. “And always, a feeling of being in touch with my female ancestral beginnings.

The humans that John McQueen creates of bark often answer questions. McQueen received a Gold Medal from the American Craft Council this year. He has “revolutionized the conventional definition of a basket by raising issues of containment and isolation, security and control, and connections between humans and nature through his work” in the view of the Council, “creating highly original forms.” In Centered, that connection is front and center as a figure emerges from leaves. In Guise, a male figure wears a skirt to help his balance, the artist says. Tilting at Windmills, speaks for itself — a human figure tips sidewise on one leg — holding its own for the moment, but capable of toppling over at any time.

Norma Minkowitz also began her explorations with vessels, sculptural and crocheted, adding depictions of human figures later in her career. “As I exhausted the possibilities of the many enclosed vessel forms that I had created,” Minkowitz told Zone Arts, “I turned to my interest in the human form.  My earliest drawings in pen and ink were always about the human form as well as the human condition. I now returned to the idea of using the figure in my sculptures which was a difficult transition to create –making them transparent and at the same time structured. These where at once much larger and more complicated than the vessel forms. These veiled figurative sculptures were mostly created in the 1990s to the mid- 2000’s. I have also created multi-figure sculptures that illustrate the passage of time and other kinds of transitions, I call these installations sequential as I often use several juxtaposed and related figures together.”

The best-known human figures of fiber are perhaps those by Magdalena Abakanowicz, made of burlap (and later of steel).  “Abakanowicz drew from the human lot of the 20th century, the lot of a man destroyed by the disasters of that century, a man who wants to be born anew,” said Andrzej Szczerski, head of the National Museum in Krakow when the sculptor died in 2017. (https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-magdalena-abakanowicz-20170424-story.html). She had begun her art work as a painter, then created enormous woven tapestries, Abakans, in the earlier ’60s, which heralded the contemporary fiber movement. These works led to burlap backs, then standing figures then legions of figures of metal, like those in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Like other artists promoted by browngrotta arts, Abakanowicz, “… showed that sculpture does not need to be in one block,” art critic Monika Branicka said, “that it can be a situation in space and that it can be made of fabrics.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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