Janet Echelman

Janet Echelman was born in Tampa, Florida in 1966.{{cite web|url=http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=30975 |title=Janet Echelman | Smithsonian American Art Museum |publisher=Americanart.si.edu |access-date=July 23, 2017}} Her father is an endocrinologist, and her mother a jewelry designer.{{cite web|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-one-artist-learned-sculpt-wind-180957064/ |title=How One Artist Learned to Sculpt the Wind |publisher=Smithsonianmag.com |date=November 20, 2015 |access-date=July 23, 2017}} She graduated from Harvard University in 1987.{{Cite news|url=http://harvardmagazine.com/2015/05/net-effects|title=Net Effects|date=April 15, 2015|work=Harvard Magazine|access-date=July 25, 2017|language=en}}

Echelman traveled to Hong Kong on a Rotary International Fellowship to study Chinese brush painting and calligraphy.{{Cite news|url=https://now.tufts.edu/commencement2016/biographies/echelman|title=Commencement 2016: Biographies - Janet Echelman|date=May 13, 2016|work=Tufts Now|access-date=July 25, 2017|language=en|archive-date=June 20, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190620083601/https://now.tufts.edu/commencement2016/biographies/echelman|url-status=dead}} She later returned to Harvard University as an artist-in-residence and was given an old squash court to use as her studio.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1994/1/14/students-paint-wall-mural-pit-wasnt/|title=Students Paint Wall Mural {{!}} News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson|website=www.thecrimson.com|language=en|access-date=July 25, 2017}} In 1997, Echelman won a Fulbright Senior Lectureship and traveled to India with the intention of giving painting exhibitions.{{Cite web|date=2020-07-24|title=Janet Echelman installs woven sculpture in Florida to honour Civil Rights Movement|url=https://www.dezeen.com/2020/07/24/janet-echelman-woven-sculpture-florida-civil-rights-movement/|access-date=2021-08-16|website=Dezeen|language=en}} 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 {{convert|270|ft|adj=on}} structures machine-woven from polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and suspended from skyscrapers.{{Cite web|last=Company|first=Tampa Publishing|title=Janet Echelman discusses her public art sculpture at the new St. Pete Pier|url=https://www.tampabay.com/life-culture/arts/visual-arts/2020/07/10/janet-echelman-discusses-her-public-art-sculpture-at-the-new-st-pete-pier/|access-date=2021-08-16|website=Tampa Bay Times|language=en}} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/11/20/455912166/how-did-a-mishap-lead-to-an-artists-best-work|title=Janet Echelman: How Did A Mishap Lead To An Artist's Best Work?|website=NPR.org|access-date=July 18, 2017}}

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Radical Softness: The Responsive Art of Janet Echelman is a comprehensive visual compendium published in 2025 that explores the breadth of Janet Echelman's artistic practice and philosophy. Authored by art historian and curator Gloria Sutton,{{Cite web |title=Gloria Sutton |url=https://camd.northeastern.edu/people/gloria-sutton/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) |language=en-US}} the book documents over twenty-five years of Echelman's career, highlighting her innovative use of materials such as atomized water particles and engineered fibers, as well as her unique integration of ancient craft techniques with advanced computational modeling.

The book features detailed project documentation, archival materials, and an illustrated chronology of Echelman's work, providing insight into her creative process and evolution as an artist. It also includes a foreword by Swizz Beatz and contributions from a diverse group of scholars, engineers, designers, architects, and curators, situating Echelman's work within the broader contexts of global art history, architecture, computation, and landscape architecture.

Radical Softness emphasizes Echelman's ongoing commitment to "Taking Imagination Seriously," a theme she introduced in her widely viewed TED Talk,{{Cite web |title=Taking imagination seriously - Janet Echelman |url=https://ed.ted.com/lessons/janet-echelman-taking-imagination-seriously |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=TED-Ed |language=en}} and examines how her monumental netted sculptures have redefined public spaces around the world. The book is published by Chronicle Books and Princeton Architectural Press{{Cite web |title=Radical Softness |url=https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/radical-softness |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=Chronicle Books |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Comments |first=View |title=Janet Echelman’s memorable 2015 piece wins Boston Society for Architecture’s Harleston Parker Medal - The Boston Globe |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/01/18/arts/janet-echelmans-memorable-2015-piece-wins-boston-society-architectures-harleston-parker-medal/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=BostonGlobe.com |language=en-US}} and will become available on September 16, 2025.

Accompanying the book's release, a major exhibition titled Janet Echelman: Radical Softness was organized by the Sarasota Art Museum,{{Cite web |title=Janet Echelman: Radical Softness - Sarasota Art Museum |url=https://www.sarasotaartmuseum.org/janet-echelman-radical-softness/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |language=en-US}} offering an intimate look at her artistic journey and underscoring the significance of softness as both material and philosophy in her work.

File:El cielo más cerca en la Plaza Mayor con la nube de color de Janet Echelman 02.jpg in Madrid, Spain, 2018|180x180px]]Janet Echelman's Earthtime Series is a collection of large-scale, aerial sculptures created between 2019 and 2021, designed to interact with their environment. Made from lightweight, flexible fibers, these nets are suspended over public spaces and move with the wind, symbolizing the interplay between natural forces and human creativity. The series goal is to emphasize the passage of time and the interconnectedness of life on Earth, urging viewers to reflect on the planet's fragility and the importance of sustainability. {{Cite web |title=Janet Echelman's 1.8 Renwick {{!}} Washington DC |url=https://washington.org/event/janet-echelmans-18-renwick |access-date=2024-08-15 |website=washington.org |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=2015-11-09 |title=Inside the High-Tech Makeover of America's Oldest Art Museum Building |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-09/inside-the-high-tech-restoration-of-america-s-oldest-art-museum-the-renwick-gallery-in-washington-d-c |access-date=2024-08-15 |work=Bloomberg.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Janet Echelman completes rippling sculpture in Riyadh informed by earthquake and tsunami data |url=https://archinect.com/news/article/150412341/janet-echelman-completes-rippling-sculpture-in-riyadh-informed-by-earthquake-and-tsunami-data |access-date=2024-08-15 |website=Archinect |language=en}}File:NC_LynnHey_Img3_cc.jpg in front of Where We Met, 2016|180x180px]]

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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.{{Cite news|url=http://www.archdaily.com/793438/janet-echelmans-railroad-inspired-net-sculpture-premiers-in-north-carolina|title=Janet Echelman's Railroad-Inspired Net Sculpture Premiers in North Carolina|date=August 16, 2016|work=ArchDaily|access-date=July 17, 2017|language=en-US}} The design is inspired by the city's textile industry and the six railroad lines that intersected there, bringing people together.{{Cite news|url=http://www.greensboro.com/blogs/gotriad_extra/spotlight-turns-to-lebauer-park-sculpture-video/article_72e21074-a6d3-5b41-98f3-08e56192c69c.html|title=Spotlight turns to LeBauer Park sculpture (Video)|last=DeCwikiel-Kane|first=Dawn |work=Greensboro News & Record|access-date=July 17, 2017 |date=August 11, 2016}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2015/02/Impatient-Optimist-Sculpture-Unveiled|title=Impatient Optimist Sculpture Unveiled|website=Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation|language=en|access-date=July 17, 2017}} 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.{{Cite news|url=http://www.echelman.com/project/impatient-optimist/|title=Impatient Optimist, Seattle, WA, 2015 - Janet Echelman|work=Janet Echelman|access-date=July 17, 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=July 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170716144705/http://www.echelman.com/project/impatient-optimist/|url-status=live}}

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.File:Every_Beating_Second.jpgThe title of the sculpture is from a line by beat poet Allen Ginsberg in his poem Howl, which he wrote in San Francisco.{{Cite book|title=Wait Till I'm Dead|last=Ginsberg|first=Allen|publisher=Bill Morgan|year=2016|isbn=978-0-8021-2453-1|location=New York, NY}} 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.{{Cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/janet-echelman-reshaping-_n_1387720.html|title=Janet Echelman Reshaping Urban Airspace World-Wide|last=Rao|first=Mallika|date=March 29, 2012|work=Huffington Post|access-date=July 17, 2017|language=en-US}}

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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.{{Cite news|url=http://www.archdaily.com/219868/janet-echelman-reshaping-urban-airspace-world-wide|title=Janet Echelman Reshaping Urban Airspace World-Wide|date=March 25, 2012|work=ArchDaily|access-date=July 17, 2017|language=en-US}} 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.File:PHX_Echelman_PhotoJillRichards.png

Finished in 2009, this 145-foot-tall (44 m) aerial net sculpture is suspended over Civic Space Park in Phoenix, Arizona. Nighttime illumination colors change gradually through the seasons, from blues in the summer to reds in the winter. The title quotes poet Waldo Emerson: "Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience."

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Installed at the Praça da Cidade do Salvador, Porto, Portugal in 2005, this sculpture is composed of an aerial net sculpture hanging from a 45-metre (148 ft) steel ring on three steel support poles. The city has made the sculpture its graphic symbol and residents give different interpretations of the work, from fishing nets, ships and masts of maritime history, to smokestacks of the industrial past, to Portuguese lace, sea creatures, and ripples in water.

Installed in 2023, the sculpture is suspended over High and Gay streets in Downtown Columbus. It is her only work over an intersection. It is hung around a large redevelopment by Jeff Edwards, who paid for the sculpture. {{Cite web |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2023/06/09/the-weekly-rundown-current-sculpture.html |access-date=2024-08-15 |website=www.bizjournals.com}}{{Cite web |date=2023-04-05 |title=A new sight in downtown Columbus: 'Current,' the floating sculpture |url=https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/janet-echelman-floating-sculpture-coming-to-downtown-columbus/530-6957651c-3d99-44a4-a478-1659919b6cad |access-date=2024-08-15 |website=10tv.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2023/06/02/current-art-hanging.html |access-date=2024-08-15 |website=www.bizjournals.com}}     

Commissioned by the Greenway Conservancy's Public Art Program, As If It Were Already Here was suspended over the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston, MA from May through October 2015. The netted sculpture was 245 feet long and tethered to surrounding skyscrapers.{{Cite news|url=https://www.dezeen.com/2015/07/16/janet-echelman-aerial-sculpture-installation-rope-rose-kennedy-greenway-boston-park/|title=Artist Janet Echelman creates aerial rope sculpture in Boston|date=July 16, 2015|work=Dezeen|access-date=July 17, 2017|language=en-US}} File:BOS_Echelman_PhotoBrucePetschek.jpg

The piece's design represented the history of the space that it was suspended across.{{Cite news|url=https://www.wallpaper.com/art/echelmans-web-knotted-rope-sculpture-floats-high-above-boston|title=Echelman's web: knotted rope sculpture floats high above Boston {{!}} Art {{!}} Wallpaper* Magazine|last=Magazine|first=Wallpaper*|date=July 20, 2015|work=Wallpaper*|access-date=July 17, 2017}} Three voids in the sculpture recalled the history of the "Tri-Mountain" which once existed in its spot but was flattened in the 18th century to allow for more flat land near the harbor. Six colorful stripes across the piece represented the six lanes of traffic of the highway that used to occupy the space of the greenway before the "Big-Dig" that relocated the highway underground.{{Cite news|url=http://www.echelman.com/project/boston-greenway/|title=As If It Were Already Here, Boston, MA, 2015 - Janet Echelman|work=Janet Echelman|access-date=July 17, 2017|language=en-US}} In 2023, the Boston Society of Architects awarded the work its Harleston Parker Medal, which recognizes "the most beautiful piece of architecture, building, monument, or structure built in the metropolitan Boston area in the past 10 years".{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Abigail |title=Janet Echelman's memorable 2015 piece wins Boston Society for Architecture's Harleston Parker Medal |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/01/18/arts/janet-echelmans-memorable-2015-piece-wins-boston-society-architectures-harleston-parker-medal/ |access-date=19 January 2023 |work=Boston Globe |date=18 January 2023}}

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An aerial sculpture created for the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference's 30th anniversary in March 2014, suspended between the Vancouver Convention Centre and a 30-story building. For this piece, Echelman collaborated with the Google Creative Lab's Creative Director of the Data Arts team, Aaron Koblin.{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heidi-legg/745-foot-sky-sculpture-ho_b_5001185.html|title=745 Foot Sky Sculpture Hovers over TED Talks in Vancouver|last=Legg|first=Heidi|date=March 20, 2014|website=Huffington Post|language=en-US|access-date=July 17, 2017}} The sculpture spanned 745 feet. Viewers were able to connect to the lighting program and interact with the sculpture with their smartphones.

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Echelman was commissioned to build one of her aerial net sculptures for a one-night light festival, GLOW, in Santa Monica on the night of September 28, 2013. The sculpture included shaped beach and an audio program to immerse visitors in the piece.{{cite web|url=http://framework.latimes.com/2013/09/29/glow-is-back-bringing-all-night-art-to-santa-monica/|title=Glow is back, bringing all-night art to Santa Monica|last=Times|first=Los Angeles|date=September 29, 2013|website=Framework|access-date=July 18, 2017}} More than 150,000 people attended and experienced the sculpture that night. The New York Times credited Echelman's work for "giving crafts a coolly conceptual edge."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/arts/design/glow-art-festival-illuminates-a-beach.html|title=Glow Art Festival Illuminates a Beach|last=Lovett|first=Ian|date=September 29, 2013|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 18, 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

The experience of creating this sculpture marked a point of change for Echelman. "The beach is the charged zone between human society and uncontrolled nature," she said. "I'm interested in sculpting earth and sky, and placing ourselves in between. It's the collision of heaviness and lightness, between our gravity-bound bodies which walk on sand, and the part of us which seeks to float in air, or in water."{{Cite news|url=http://www.echelman.com/project/the-space-between-us/|title=The Space Between Us, Santa Monica, CA, 2013 - Janet Echelman|work=Janet Echelman|access-date=July 18, 2017|language=en-US}}

Echelman was married to David Feldman, and they had two children together.{{Cite web |title=OBITUARY David Nathaniel Feldman |url=https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/brookline-ma/david-feldman-11497302 |access-date=August 12, 2024 |website=Dignity Memorial}}

• Public Art Network's Year in Review Award{{cite web|url=http://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/networks-and-councils/public-art-network/pan-year-in-review-database |title=PAN Year in Review & Database |publisher=Americans for the Arts |access-date=July 14, 2017}} (2005,{{cite web|url=http://www.americansforthearts.org/2005-public-art-network-year-in-review-she-changes |title=2005 Public Art Network Year in Review: She Changes |publisher=Americans for the Arts |access-date=July 14, 2017}} 2010,{{cite web|url=http://www.americansforthearts.org/2010-public-art-network-year-in-review-her-secret-is-patience |title=2010 Public Art Network Year in Review: Her Secret Is Patience |publisher=Americans for the Arts |access-date=July 14, 2017}} 2015,{{cite web|url=http://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/networks-and-councils/public-art-network/people-projects/skies-painted-with-unnumbered-sparks |title=Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks |publisher=Americans for the Arts |access-date=July 14, 2017}} 2017{{Cite web |title=Public Art Network Year In Review Database |url=https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/networks-and-councils/public-art-network/public-art-year-in-review-database/18-london |access-date=August 15, 2024 |website=Americans for the Arts}})
• Tuft's University Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts (2016){{cite web|url=http://commencement.tufts.edu/honorary-degree-recipients/honorary-degree-recipients-2016/ |title=Honorary Degree Recipients 2016 | Commencement |website=Commencement.tufts.edu |date=May 22, 2016 |access-date=July 14, 2017}}
• United States Artists Fellowship (2016){{cite web |author=Janet Echelman |url=http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/fellows/2016/janet-echelman |title=Janet Echelman — United States Artists |website=Unitedstatesartists.org |date=November 16, 2016 |access-date=July 14, 2017 |archive-date=December 15, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215032234/http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/fellows/2016/janet-echelman |url-status=dead }}
• Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award, Visual Arts (2014){{cite web |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/arts-culture/smithsonian-ingenuity-awards-2014-janet-ech/ |title=Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards 2014: Janet Echelman | Smithsonian |website=Smithsonianmag.com |date=March 16, 2012 |access-date=July 14, 2017 |archive-date=March 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331004456/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/arts-culture/smithsonian-ingenuity-awards-2014-janet-ech/ |url-status=dead }}
• Architectural Digest magazine's Innovator (2012){{cite magazine|author=Patricia Leigh Brown |url=http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/artist-janet-echelman-sculptures-article |title=Janet Echelman's Suspended Sculptures |magazine=Architectural Digest |date=August 31, 2012 |access-date=July 14, 2017}}
• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fellowship in Fine Arts (2011–12){{cite web|url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/janet-s-echelman/ |title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Janet S. Echelman |website=Gf.org |date=June 20, 2014 |access-date=July 14, 2017}}
• Harvard University Loeb Fellowship (2007–08, 2012–13){{cite web|last=Walsh |first=Colleen |url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/09/school-of-design-names-loeb-fellowship-class-for-2007-08/ |title=School of Design names Loeb fellowship class for 2007-08 |website=News.harvard.edu |date=13 September 2007 |access-date=July 14, 2017}}
• Fulbright Senior Lectureship in Visual Art (1997, extended 1997–98){{cite web |author=Janet Echelman |url=http://www.tedxfulbright.org/janet-echelman/ |title=Janet Echelman |website=TEDxFulbright.org |access-date=July 14, 2017 |archive-date=December 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223095210/http://www.tedxfulbright.org/janet-echelman/ |url-status=dead }}

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

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• [https://www.echelman.com/ Janet Echelman Website]
• [https://www.youtube.com/user/jechelman Studio Echelman Youtube]

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Category:1966 births

Category:Living people

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:Artists from Tampa, Florida

Category:Henry Crown Fellows

Category:21st-century American sculptors

Category:21st-century American women sculptors

Category:20th-century American women sculptors

Category:20th-century American sculptors

Category:Sculptors from Florida

Category:Members of the Harvard Board of Overseers