Open Studio
Witness Hernmarck’s monumental wall of brilliant, lustrous rya wool, and learn about the material choices, working methods, and creative questions that have informed her career and the ‘spectacular illusion’ for which she is known. Portions of Helena’s archive will be on view to illustrate her legacy of commissioned tapestries, and touch samples will be available to offer insight into her technique.
A pioneer of photorealistic tapestry in the 1960s, and the first to apply camera optics to handweaving in the 1970s, Hernmarck is credited with revolutionizing tapestry’s aesthetics and relationship to modern architecture. Her tapestries enhance buildings around the world and are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and other major institutions.
Hernmarck’s studio is located in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Please consider transportation options before registering for this event. The studio is a 15-minute drive from Purdy’s, Croton Falls and Brewster train stations on MetroNorth’s Harlem Line. Taxis are available from the Brewster train station. Address will be emailed to registered attendees one week prior to the event.
Helena Hernmarck is a Swedish tapestry artist who lives and works in the United States. She is best known for her monumental tapestries designed for architectural settings. Her mentors were three Swedish pioneers of the modern movement in textiles: Alice Lund, Edna Martin, and Astrid Sampe. After graduating from art school in Stockholm in 1963, she moved her studio to Canada and later to England before settling in the United States in the mid-1970s. Hernmarck now maintains an active studio in Ridgefield, CT.