* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Janet Echelman first set out to be an artist after graduating college. Her work reshapes urban airspace with monumental, fluidly moving sculpture that responds to environmental forces including wind, water, and sunlight.
In 1987 she moved to Hong Kong in 1987 to study Chinese calligraphy and brush-painting. Later she moved to Bali, Indonesia, where she collaborated with artisans to combine traditional textile methods with contemporary painting.
Today Echelman has constructed net sculpture environments in metropolitan cities around the world. She sees public art as a team sport and collaborates with a range of professionals including aeronautical and mechanical engineers, architects, lighting designers, landscape architects, and fabricators.
"A household name at this point in her career, Janet's work succeeds on so many levels be it scale, form, color, and/or sheer ambition. Her suspensions are almost supernatural in appearance, and I see her work as a continuation of color-field painting in the sense that it seems to come the closest in achieving a pure color form without being bound by only two dimensions. Amazing."
"Whoa. That's all."
"I love the large scale installations that make the viewer believe in visions almost like the aurora borealis. Echelman's work blurs the line between imagination and reality."
"The best thing about Janet Echelman's netted sculptures is the moment of discovery. I love the idea of stumbling across mesmerizing, technicolored nets floating in the sky, particularly at night when they're lit up like a glowing yarn constellation."
"She brings light into the world in a beautiful way. I love the simplicity and power of her large scale installations."
