From Fiber 2025 at Silvermine Galleries: Fanny Lee, Dae Tau 2 (detail); Jóh Ricci, Tranquility; and Gerri Spilka, Protagonist.
NEW CANAAN, CT, May 13, 2025—Contemporary fiber art is “having a moment,” according to Tom Grotta and Rhonda Brown of browngrotta arts, co-jurors for Silvermine’s Fiber 2025. The reasons for the current interest in textile art include the innovative ways in which artists are using their materials and the many new interpretations of traditional fiber techniques. Fiber 2025 is part of Silvermine’s continuing series of exhibitions exploring a wide range of new work in a single artistic medium. In addition to the fiber exhibition, Silvermine is presenting two companion exhibits—Masters of the Medium: CT, which features work by textile luminaries Helena Hernmarck and Norma Minkowitz, and Mastery and Materiality: International, which showcases browngrotta artists from nine countries. The trio of exhibitions runs from May 10 through June 19 at Silvermine Galleries. The public is invited to the opening reception on Sat., May 17, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Technical excellence and a distinct artistic vision are evident in every work in the exhibition, which includes both sculptural objects and wall-mounted pieces. Jóh Ricci’s intricate, knotted constructions of brocade, wool, mylar, and cotton imbue bowl and sphere-shaped sculptures with a presence both jewel-like and cosmic. The title of Fanny Lee’s Dae Tau 2 refers to the Cantonese expression for place or map—referring to a natural landscape. The work begins at the top in an ordered array of boxes and ends in a less structured, almost unfinished format. Gerri Spilka’s large-scale wall-piece is inspired by Joseph Campbell and Maureen Murdock’s writings on the journeys of the hero and heroine. Her hand-dyed fabrics, rhythmic stitching, and intricate, biomorphic shapes—offer a dazzling modernist transformation of the traditional quilting form.
Visitors to Fiber 2025 will find striking forms in natural fibers and pieces that are unique in structure and scale. These are powerful works that take full advantage of the vitality and emotional resonance of textile art.
Masters of the Medium: CT Helena Hernmarck and Norma Minkowitz
Masters of the Medium: CT, presented by browngrotta arts, features select works by Helena Hernmarck and Norma Minkowitz. A recipient of the Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award, Helena Hernmarck is a Swedish-born artist and hand weaver recognized for revolutionizing tapestry as a medium suited to modern architectural environments. Norma Minkowitz explores the possibilities of crocheted, interlaced sculptures stiffened into hard, mesh-like structures. Her works are abstract, figurative, often self-referential, and found in numerous museum collections. Both Hernmarck and Minkowitz are Fellows of the American Craft Council and Connecticut’s best-known artists who work in fiber.
Mastery and Materiality: International
Mastery and Materiality: International, highlights accomplished and engaging work by 17 artists from nine countries, represented by browngrotta arts. The group includes renowned Jacquard weavers Grethe Sorensen from Denmark and Lia Cook from the U.S., accomplished embroiderers Åse Ljones from Norway and Heidrun Schimmel from Germany, and fiber sculptors and weavers from the U.K., Chile, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Japan who work in seaweed, bark, wire, vintage paper straws, lead, and fish scales. Artists include: John McQueen, James Bassler, Hisako Sekijima, Wendy Wahl, Sue Lawty, Carolina Yrarrázaval, Karyl Sisson, Jeannet Leenderste, Deborah Valoma, Marian Bijlenga, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Chiyoko Tanaka, Grethe Sorensen, Lia Cook, Åse Ljones, Heidrun Schimmel, and Anda Klancic.
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About browngrotta arts: For over 30 years, browngrotta arts has advanced the field of contemporary art by exhibiting renowned artists from the U.S. and abroad. The gallery showcases art textiles and unique sculptural, ceramic, and mixed media works with an emphasis on concept, supported by technique. Representing many of the artists who have helped define modern fiber art since the 1950s, browngrotta arts reflects the aesthetic and advocacy of its co-curators, husband-and-wife team, Tom Grotta and Rhonda Brown. The firm has placed works in private and corporate collections in the U.S. and abroad, including the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Arts and Design, the Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
