Françoise Grossen

Françoise Grossen (born 1943 in Neuchatel, Switzerland) is a textile artist known for her braided and knotted rope sculptures. She lives and works in New York City. Grossen’s work has been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Biography Françoise Grossen was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland in 1943. She studied architecture for a year at the Polytechnical University, Lausanne, Switzerland (1962–63) before becoming a textile major at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel, Switzerland (1963–1967). In 1963 Grossen spent six months as a French instructor in a professional school in the Democratic Republic of Congo and lived in Gabon for two years, an experience that would influence her later career.

Upon her return from Gabon in 1967, Grossen received her degree in Textile Design from Kunstgewerbeschule. In 1968 she moved to the United States to study with Professor Bernard Kester at UCLA, where she received an M.A. in 1969. Shortly after graduating from UCLA, Grossen moved to New York City to work for Jack Lenor Larsen Inc. It was Larsen who gave Grossen her first show in his showroom on east 59th Street. As her own work and commissions began to take off, Grossen left Larsen Inc. to establish her own studio practice, and to teach workshops at venues around the world. The artist received her American citizenship in 1983, and from 1980 to 2002 Grossen worked and lived in a studio near Almería in southern Spain. In 2002 Grossen returned to New York City, where she continues to live and work.

Artwork Grossen's work breaks away from the wall, rejecting traditional approaches to textile-based work. The artist is best known for her large architectural sculptures made from materials including manila rope and sisal, most of which hang freely from the ceiling. Travels to Africa influenced the braiding, plaiting and knotting techniques present in many of her works. Recent group exhibitions include Fiber: Sculpture 1960–Present, which was held at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and traveled to the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH and the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA (2014–2015) and Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947-2016 held at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, Los Angeles.

Over the course of her career, Grossen has created numerous large scale works for public places, institutions, corporate offices and hotels in New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Boston, Texas, California, and abroad. Her work is in international public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Smithsonian Institution, Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC; and the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Selected solo exhibitions 1968: Jack Lenor Larsen, Inc. Showroom (New York, NY) 1969: U.C.L.A. (Los Angeles, CA) 1970: San Diego California State College (San Diego, CA) 1976: Museum Bellerive (Zurich, Switzerland) 1976: Hadler Galleries (New York, NY) 1976: Kaplan Baumann Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) 1978: Reed College Art Galleries (Portland, OR) 1980 Art Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1983 Goldstein Gallery, Saint Paul, Minnesota 1987: Musee d'Art et d'Histoire (Neuchatel, Switzerland) 2015 Françoise Grossen, Blum & Poe, New York (solo exhibition) 2016: Tapisseries Nomandes, Foundation Toms Pauli-Collections XXe Siecle Musée Cantonal des Beaux Arts (Lausanne, Switzerland) 2024 Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA).

Museum collections The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Smithsonian Institution, Renwick Gallery, Washington DC. Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN Museum of Art, RISD, Providence, RI Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI

Recognition 1967–1970 UCLA Art Council Awards