In conjunction with Tephra ICA's exhibition Janet Echelman: Radical Softness, American University's Studio Art MFA program presents an artist talk with Janet Echelman in the Abramson Recital Hall, Katzen Arts Center.
Katzen Arts Center at American University
Abramson Recital Hall
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016-8031
Janet Echelman sculpts at the scale of buildings and city blocks, creating large-scale, fluid installations that merge art, architecture, and engineering to anchor public spaces across five continents five continents. Her work transforms with wind and light, inviting viewers into immersive experiences rather than static observation. Echelman uses unlikely materials—from atomized water particles to fiber stronger than steel—blending traditional craft with advanced computational design. Echelman’s unconventional path includes five years living in a Balinese village, graduate studies in both painting and psychology, and teaching at MIT, Harvard, and Princeton. Oprah ranked Echelman’s work #1 on her List of 50 Things That Make You Say Wow!, and she received the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Visual Arts, honoring “the greatest innovators in America today.”