browngrotta arts is pleased to announce Cross Currents: Water/Art/Influence, an online exhibition featuring works of Modern Craft.

Water has long been a potent influence for the artists exhibited by browngrotta arts, who explore its mystery and majesty in widely divergent ways. Works reside at the intersection of the maker’s fascination with a variety of nautical and natural themes and the artmaking process. The multifaceted exhibition combines sculptures, tapestries, installation works, paintings and ceramics.

"Cross Currents is the second online exhibition in a new series featuring artists and works of fiber art supported by a retrospective of catalogs published by browngrotta arts.  They have been recording the narrative of fiber and Modern Craft through print catalogs for over 30 years, contributing in no small feat to preserving the continuity of the field.

The exhibition highlights artists from three catalogs they have published, Of Two Minds: Artists Who Do More Than One of a Kind (Vol. 38, 2014); Plunge: explorations from above and below (Vol. 43, 2017) and Blue/Green: color/code/context, (Vol. 44, 2018).

In all, the work of  20 artists will be included in Cross Currents. Some are moved by water as a natural force, for others there is a more spiritual connection, still, others are interested in how Man is impacting our oceans and rivers.

Participating artists include: Dona Anderson, Jane Balsgaard, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Micheline Beauchemin, Marian Bijlenga, Birgit Birkjaaer, Annette Bellamy, Ferne Jacobs, Christine Joy, Lawrence LaBianca, Ase Ljones, Norma Minkowitz, John McQueen, Judy Mulford, Keiji Nio, Ed Rossbach, Debra Sachs, Karyl Sisson, Ulla-Maija Vikman, and Grethe Wittrock.

Exhibition Highlights:

Inspired by her years of commercial fishing in Alaska, Anette Bellamy’s (b 1951) Long Lines, 2010, features 132 handmade kiln ceramic hooks, twisted and turned while others remain in their original circle shape.  

In Aging By The Sea, 2004 and A Day At The Beach, 1997, Judy Mulford (b 1838) creates narrative sculpture and baskets of gourds inspired by her home at the beach in California. 

Inspired by the pristine beauty and fragility of the Arctic ecosystem, Danish artist Grethe Wittrock’s (b 1964) Arctica, 2015, is made from a repurposed weather-beaten sails from the Danish Navy.  

Debra Sachs’ (b 1953) Water Studies, 2009, evoke movement by distorting a static grid using the color blue, akin to the movement of rivers and oceans.

Lawrence LaBianca’s (b 1963) Skiff, 2010, is an antique telephone receiver that links viewers to sounds of a rushing river. For What Lies Beneath/Moby Dick Book, 2016, he photographs an encased copy of Moby Dick into water.

Cross Currents: Water/Art/Influence will be on view online on Artsy from June 8 - 30, 2020 www.artsy.net/browngrotta-arts/shows

All photos by Tom Grotta, courtesy of browngrotta arts.