Janet Echelman

Using unlikely materials, from atomized water particles to engineered fiber fifteen times stronger than steel, artist Janet Echelman combines ancient craft with computational design software to create artworks. Her works have become focal points for urban life on five continents, from Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, and Santiago, to Beijing, Boston, New York, and London. She has permanent works installed in Porto (Portugal), Gwanggyo (South Korea), Vancouver, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Phoenix, Eugene, Greensboro, Philadelphia, Seattle, and St. Petersburg (FL).

Echelman is a recipient of an honorary doctorate from Tufts University and has taught at MIT, Harvard, and Princeton. Her TED talk “Taking Imagination Seriously” has been translated into thirty-five languages with more than two million views. Echelman is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Harvard Loeb Fellowship, Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship, and Fulbright Sr. Lectureship, and the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Visual Arts. Oprah Winfrey ranked Echelman’s work #1 on her list of 50 Things That Make You Say Wow! Echelman also was named an Architectural Digest Innovator for “changing the very essence of urban spaces.”