Janet Echelman: Radical Softness
Janet Echelman: Radical Softness is a mid-career retrospective spanning approximately four decades of the artist’s work. The exhibition brings together drawings, paintings, mixed-media pieces, maquettes, and full-scale net sculptures, charting Echelman’s development from early experiments with traditional art and textile processes to monumental installations that have reshaped public spaces worldwide.
The exhibition presents Echelman’s sculptures as immersive environments that encourage reflection, empathy, and connection. Her practice combines centuries-old fishing-net knotting methods with engineered fibers, computational design, and ideas drawn from architecture, urban design, materials science, engineering, computer science, and performance. Her large-scale works respond to natural phenomena and explore the relationship between people and their surroundings. The Tephra ICA presentation is part of a broader, multi-site initiative with satellite installations and programs at American University, George Mason University’s Buchanan Gallery, and Capital One Hall.
When: September 17, 2026–March 20, 2027
Venue: Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art
Tickets: Price not available
Artist: Janet Echelman
Exhibition contents: Early drawings, paintings, mixed-media works, maquettes, and full-size net sculptures
Background: The traveling exhibition is organized by Studio Echelman and the Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College.
Related initiative: The exhibition is accompanied by satellite installations and programs at American University, Buchanan Gallery at George Mason University, and Capital One Hall.
Artist background: Echelman creates building- and city-block-scale sculptures using materials ranging from atomized water particles to engineered fibers described as fifteen times stronger than steel. Her permanent installations appear in cities across five continents, including Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, Santiago, Beijing, Boston, New York, London, Porto, Vancouver, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.
Support: The exhibition is supported in part by Every Page Foundation, Nedra and Peter Agnew, Leila Gordon, Joe Koszarek, A. Borisenko and K. Matthew, Marco and Elle Rando, and Lake Thoreau Entertainment Association.