Wilton gallery browngrotta arts considers the pandemic’s impact on creativity
In some ways, the Covid-19 pandemic did not create a severe emotional burden on certain artists.
“For some, it”™s very easy to social distance as an artist because you”™re really on your own,” said Tom Grotta, co-owner of the Wilton-based gallery browngrotta arts. “So, it”™s not as much of a struggle.”
Yet Grotta also admitted that other artists faced challenges during the pandemic that others may not have considered.
“Some of them had a problem because they couldn”™t get to their studios” he continued. “For instance, in the U.K. a lot of artists are in studios that the government controls. They couldn”™t even get their supplies or stuff out of the studios, and that limited what they could do. They had to come up with new ways of creating or finding new materials.”
The impact of the pandemic on the visual arts is the subject of this year”™s browngrotta arts special exhibit “Adaptation: Artists Respond to Change,” which premiered on May 8 and runs through May 16. The exhibit presented under browngrotta arts”™ “Art in the Barn” annual event ”” the name comes from the two-story barn built in 1895 that Grotta and his wife, Rhonda Brown, own and have converted into their exhibition and workspace.
“Adaptation: Artists Respond to Change” offers the public a rare opportunity to view the browngrotta arts collection.
“We”™re only open to the public 10 days a year,” Brown said.
“Even before the pandemic, we”™re only open 10 days,” added Grotta. “We”™re a niche market ”” we always tell people that we”™re the biggest fish in the smallest pond in the world. We sell to museums all over the world. If you”™re in this field, you know who we are.”
Brown and Grotta began their business in 1987 and specialize in contemporary artists who are globally recognized as masters of fiber art techniques, working in sculpture and mixed media formats. The art represented by the gallery has gained in popularity among museums and collectors in recent years.
“A lot of it had to do with the transitioning in museums where textiles, which is the bulk of what we show, used to be delegated to decorative arts,” Grotta said. “It used to be classified as just a woman”™s craft, but it”™s no longer the case. It”™s in the major galleries and the major museums next to the major pieces, and some are among the works going for lots of money at auction.”
Brown said the pandemic disrupted the gallery”™s “Art in the Barn” schedule, forcing its relocation from May to September “between the two surges” in the Covid infection rates while limiting attendance to local art aficionados and collectors rather than the more diverse geographic audience that normally attends the event.
“We had a lot of people who had to cancel plane flights,” Grotta said. “Normally, we have artists who were coming from all over the world and curators and clients from California who could not get here. So, it really became more of a tristate show compared to a multistate show.”
But at least one group of attendees savored the experience.
“We had a family who came from New York who brought up a picnic lunch with wine, and they were outside having lunch,” Grotta added, with a laugh. “It was the first time they”™ve been out since March and they felt safe here.”
With most of browngrotta arts”™ sales coming from its online site, the gallery kept functioning through the pandemic.
“The only thing that hurt us is that a big part of our customer base was the museum market,” Brown said. “And they”™re sort of in retreat until Covid is over. Let”™s face it, they”™re more worried about getting people in the door and paying employees.”
But as the pandemic starts to recede, Brown charted an increase in the gallery”™s business, and interest in “Adaptation: Artists Respond to Change” has been percolating prior its opening. With new works by roughly 50 artists from around the world, the exhibit provides distinctive and provocative considerations of the pandemic”™s emotional impacts.
Among the most striking works on display are Ane Henriksen, whose “Urban Growth” is a massive collage from lost gloves and mittens she found along bicycle paths around Copenhagen; Lewis Knauss”™ “Old Technology Landscape,” which creates a bird”™s nest-style formation made from discarded photographic slides and twine; and Laura Foster Nicholson”™s “Procuratorio Flooded,” a tapestry depiction of the climate change-fueled flooding in Venice”™s central district.
While the pandemic is the foundation of the new exhibit, Brown said that artists often find their vision overhauled by personal joys and trauma.
“One of our artists fell in love and suddenly started using color,” she said. “She never used color before ”” always natural materials. Another one got a divorce and everything was black for four years. And there was a woman who worked in wool and she developed an allergy to wool, so she had to move to organza and then she discovered that stainless steel mesh could give her the same sensibility that organza gave her, but with more options.”
After the exhibit closed, Brown and Grotta plan to launch online exhibitions via an updated website and to publish three art-related books they”™ve been working on. A September exhibit might be staged at their space, provided the current exhibition is commercially successful.
“We live with it,” Brown said about the art on display. “We hope it leaves and moves around, and then we are getting ready for the next one.”