Grethe Wittrock

Statement:

"I was born in the countryside amongst fjords and I remember my childhood fascination with the structure and shapes of nature. I loved the form and colors of the bluish-grey stones along the coast, the green moss and the swing of the lime grass. I thought of ways to create something similar in a chosen material and, for some reason, I chose textiles. Its softness and flexibility and the way you can shape it, either as a fabric or a yarn, appealed to me. Structures, texture and surfaces are essential to my work and textile can play these roles."

Selected collections and exhibition venues:

Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK; Groenbechsgaard, Bornholm, Denmark (solo exhibition); Bispgarden, Kalundborg, Denmark; Galerie Handwerk, Munich, Germany (Masters of the Modern Age); Round Tower, Copenhagen, Denmark (Second Nature); Hudson Opera House, New York, New York; Nordic 5 Arts, San Francisco, California (New Nordic Design); Cheongju, Korea (Cheongju International Craft Biennial); Kjarvalsstadir Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC (Nordic Cool; Hot Women); LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, New York; Issey Miyake Studio, Tokyo, Japan (Small Works in Fiber, curated by Jack Lenor Larsen and Mildred Constantine); Textile Museum, Prato, Italy; The Danish House, Paris, France; Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, Denmark; The National Museum of Science and Industry, London, UK (Challenge of New Materials Gallery); Brazil Museum of Art, Sao Paulo, Brazil (Fio 2); Flinn Gallery, Greenwich Public Library, Connecticut (Paperworks: Material as Medium); Badishes State Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany; Museum for Arts and Crafts, Hamburg, Germany and Awangarda Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland (Paper-Art-Fashion). Recipient: 1st Place, Public Commission, Hospice Sohølm, Arhus, Denmark; 3-year grant, Danish State Art Foundation; Danish Design Prize; Arts and Crafts Prize of 1879, Silver Medal; Talente Prize, Bavarian State Gold Medal, Munich.