Janet Echelman, Study (Butterfly Rest Stop 1/9 scale), Sarasota Art Museum, 2025

For Immediate Release 
Contact: Sofia Blom | sblom@tephraica.org

Images available upon request 

Tephra ICA announces Janet Echelman exhibition 

September 17, 2026–January 15, 2027

Reston, VA – Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) announces Radical Softness, a mid-career retrospective of renowned artist Janet Echelman. Radical Softness is open to the public at Tephra ICA starting September 17. An artist talk will be held at American University in Washington, DC on September 16.

The exhibition anchors a multi-site initiative featuring satellite installations at American University, Capital One Hall, and the Buchanan Gallery at George Mason University.

Radical Softness brings together early drawings, paintings, mixed media works, maquettes, and full-size net sculptures spanning four decades of Echelman’s career. The exhibition offers a rare and intimate look at her artistic evolution -- tracing her journey from early explorations in drawing, painting, and textile methods to the monumental, netted sculptures that have redefined public spaces around the world.  

Image courtesy of Janet Echelman

At its core, Radical Softness presents softness as both material and philosophy. Through hand-splicing, braiding, knotting, and looming fibers, Echelman creates flexible, resilient sculptures that adapt to their shifting surroundings, asserting that softness is a form of strength. Her practice is equally rooted in technology: Echelman collaborates with aerospace engineers and computational designers and has worked with MIT Media Lab to develop software that allows her sculptures to respond in real time to environmental data including wind, water, and seismic activity. Spanning all four decades of her path-breaking career, the exhibition reveals how an artist’s work can bring people together and carve out space for reflection in an ever-changing world. This exhibition marks Echelman’s return to the DMV ten years after here installation 1.8 Renwick was presented in the Grand Salon of the Renwick Gallery as part of the landmark 2015 exhibition WONDER. 

Image courtesy of Janet Echelman

About Janet Echelman



Janet Echelman sculpts at the scale of buildings and city blocks. Echelman’s work defies categorization, as it intersects disciplinary boundaries, from Sculpture, Architecture, and Urban Design to Material Science, Structural & Aeronautical Engineering, Computer Science, and performance. Renowned for her soaring installations that merge ancient craft with cutting-edge technology, she creates massive, undulating forms that invite viewers to slow down, connect with their surroundings, and engage with one another. Using centuries-old fishing-net knotting techniques, Echelman transforms humble materials into ethereal sculptures that visualize natural phenomena and create a palpable experience of the interconnectedness of humanity and the environment. Her works serve as vessels for storytelling and empathy, fostering spaces for contemplation that, as Echelman describes, “shift from being an object you look at to something you can get lost in.” 



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

About Tephra ICA 

For over 50 years, Tephra ICA has been a gathering space for contemporary art, artists, and the community. A Reston, VA-based non-profit located at 12001 Market Street, Suite 103, Reston, VA, Tephra ICA presents year-round exhibitions featuring emerging to established artists. Our exhibition-centered programs bring audiences together for informed dialogue, inspired conversation, and hands-on art making.  



The word “tephra” – matter from geothermal eruptions that lands upon, nourishes, and changes the surrounding environment - emphasizes the institution’s belief in the combustibility of creativity and the generation of ideas and growth that the arts can provide.

Gallery Hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 11am–5pm
More information at tephraica.org.

Tephra ICA is supported in part by Reston Community Center, Virginia Tourism Corporation, ArtsFairfax, Reston Town Center Association, Virginia Commission for the Arts, and the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia.