Janet Echelman

Janet Echelman (born March 19, 1966) is an American sculptor and fiber artist.

Her sculptures have been displayed as public art, often as site-specific installations.

Janet Echelman was born in Tampa, Florida in 1966.

Her father is an endocrinologist, and her mother a jewelry designer.

She graduated from Harvard University in 1987.

Echelman traveled to Hong Kong on a Rotary International Fellowship to study Chinese brush painting and calligraphy.

She later returned to Harvard University as an artist-in-residence and was given an old squash court to use as her studio.

In 1997, Echelman won a Fulbright Senior Lectureship and traveled to India with the intention of giving painting exhibitions.

Her artistic supplies were lost in transit to Mahabalipuram, so she began working with local bronze-casters but the material was heavy and too expensive for her budget.

While watching fishermen bundling their nets, Echelman was inspired to take a new approach, creating volumetric form without heavy, solid materials.

In collaboration with the fishermen, Echelman created a series of netted sculptures, her "Bellbottoms" series.

Echelman has developed aerial sculptures into 270 ft structures machine-woven from polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and suspended from skyscrapers.

The lightweight surfaces of these sculptures shift and ripple with air currents, an effect which may be enhanced with projected light and fans; these are often installed so the audience may interact with the sculpture, reinforcing Echelman's theme of interconnectedness.

1.8 Renwick is a sculpture commissioned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum for the reopening of the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. after a 2 year long renovation.

The renovation aimed to transform the Renwick Gallery into an interactive art space.

Put on display beginning in 2009, Water Sky Garden is a contemplative art environment at the plaza surrounding the Richmond Olympic Oval, a legacy of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Red-stained cedar boardwalks lead visitors through the artwork.

Water-purifying aerators draw shapes with bubbles on the surface of a pond that collects runoff water from the Oval's 5-acre roof, while suspended net sculptures move overhead in the wind, becoming sky-lanterns with nighttime illumination.

Finished in 2009, this 145-foot-tall (44 m) aerial net sculpture is suspended over Civic Space Park in Phoenix, Arizona.

Works include: 1.26, which has been exhibited on five continents; Her Secret Is Patience in downtown Phoenix; Water Sky Garden which premiered for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics; She Changes on the waterfront in Porto, Portugal; and Every Beating Second at San Francisco International Airport.

Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Echelman was named an Architectural Digest 2012 Innovator for "changing the very essence of urban spaces."

Echelman's artwork has been reviewed in The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, and was selected for Architectural Digest's "Innovators".

She serves on the Harvard Board of Overseers.

1.8 Renwick hung in the Grand Salon of the Renwick Gallery from November 2015 to June 2017 and was the site Michelle Obama brought a Nordic delegation to introduce them to Contemporary American Art.

The large net sculpture was part of the museum's Wonder exhibition from November 13, 2015 until July 10, 2016, then was acquired by the Renwick Gallery for their permanent collection and stayed on view in the Grand Salon until May 21, 2017.

Installed in 2015, Impatient Optimist was commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation for their global campus in downtown Seattle that opened in 2011.

By photographing the Seattle sky every five minutes during a 24-hour period, Echelman and her studio analyzed the color data of the picture sequence and graphed it radially.

Within the renovated Terminal 2 of San Francisco International Airport, this 40-foot (12 m) sculptural installation of colored netting hangs below three round skylights.

During the day, the shadow of the sculpture interplays with a shaded outline of the shadow that would occur at the summer solstice.

At night, the sculpture is lit with programmed color lighting.

Fans animate the sculpture throughout the day.

The title of the sculpture is from a line by beat poet Allen Ginsberg in his poem Howl, which he wrote in San Francisco.

Visually, the sculpture evokes the contours and colors of cloud formations over San Francisco Bay and hints at the silhouette of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Aesthetically, the sculpture looks both backwards and forwards, drawing its color from the heyday of psychedelic music, the Summer of Love, and San Francisco's prominence in the beat poetry movement, while also referencing the contemporary bay area as a hub of innovation and interconnectivity for the world of technology.

Installed in 2016, this aerial net sculpture measures 200 by 130 feet (61 m × 40 m) and is suspended over the Great Lawn of LeBauer City Park in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina.

The design is inspired by the city's textile industry and the six railroad lines that intersected there, bringing people together.

Its re-installation in 2020 has been extended into 2023.

The piece is part of Echelman's Earthtime Series, and 1.8 Renwick was custom designed to fit the space of the Grand Salon.

The number in the title refers to the measurement of time the Earth's day shortened in response to a shifting of the Earth's crust.

Echelman also designed a 4,000 square foot textile flooring with a pattern which matched the topography of the sculpture above.

On the floor, furniture was arranged to invite viewers to lie down and be immersed.