Janet Echelman (born 1966) is an American sculptor and fiber artist. Her sculptures have been displayed as public art, often as site-specific installations. After graduating from Harvard College, she lived in a Balinese village for 5 years, then completed separate graduate programs in Painting and in Psychology. In 1997, she traveled to India with the intention of giving painting exhibitions. Echelman walked along the beach daily, while watching fishermen bundling their nets, she was inspired to take a new approach to sculpture, creating volumetric form without heavy, solid materials. In collaboration with the fishermen, Echelman created her first hand-crafted series of netted sculptures, her "Bellbottoms" series.
Studio Echelman, based in Boston, explores the cutting edge of sculpture, public art, and urban transformation. The design team spans the globe and includes architects, aeronautical and mechanical engineers, lighting designers, computer scientists, landscape architects, and fabricators. Echelman’s artworks have become focal points for urban life on five continents, from Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, and Santiago, to Beijing, Boston, New York and London.
The permanent and temporary projects draw inspiration from ancient craft and combine technology to create living, breathing pieces that respond to the forces of nature. Echelman’s art transforms with wind and light. At night, the perceived color slowly changes through the addition of programmed projections of colored LED lighting. In daylight, viewers see the embedded physical color of the fiber material, which also changes gradually through time. Echelman’s art shifts from being “an object you look at; into an experience you can get lost in.”
Selected Art Works:
- SKIES PAINTED WITH UNNUMBERED SPARKS, Vancouver, Canada, 2014
- WHERE WE MET, NC, 2016
- 1.8 SAN DIEGO, CA, 2016
- AS IF IT WERE ALREADY HERE, Boston, 2015
- EXPANDING CLUB, New York City, NY, 2007
- WITHOUT BEGINNING MIDDLE OR END, Private Collection, 2020
- 1.8 MEXICO CITY, 2017
- DREAM CATCHER, West Hollywood, CA, 2017
- 1.78 MADRID, Spain, 2018
- EVERY BEATING SECOND, San Francisco, CA, 2011
- 1.78 DUBAI, U.A.E., 2018
- THE SPACE BETWEEN US, Santa Monica, CA, 2013
- TARGET SWOOPING AUSTRIA, Austria, 2017
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