BravinLee editions is very pleased to present Global Key, the second hand-knotted rug designed by James Siena.

James Siena is a New York painter/printmaker who was for many years an artist’s artist and a well kept secret of the New York art scene. But in recent years Siena’s reputation has soared and his paintings and drawings are sought after by the most respected art collectors and museums in the world. James Siena builds complex quirky geometries based on defined sets of instructions (algorithms) that amount to a kind of cowboy visual mathematics. In the work Global Key, Siena follows the characteristics of a Fibonacci Sequence, in which the acute angles and lines progressively divide the composition. As in the original painting, the rug maintains exact mathematical sequencing and proportion. Our intention in Global Key was to preserve the characteristics that make James Siena’s work so singular and compelling. Yet, we are pleased that there is a point at which the results rest in the hands of the weavers and the final product is collaborative and almost alchemistic. The translation of Siena’s image by the weavers, the shift in scale, and the addition of materiality, provide the viewer with a new entry point to experience and enjoy Siena’s aesthetic.

About the James Siena exhibition at Pace Gallery in 2006, art critic Roberta Smith of the New York Times wrote:

" Mr. Siena's paintings transcend painting to encroach on mathematics, puzzles, manuscript illumination and maps. They elude Western art to evoke Andean textiles, Chinese bronzes, African bark paintings, Persian screens, jewelry and glass-making and calligraphy. These disparate associations, more carefully isolated and combined in individual works than previously in Mr. Siena's art, make this savvy re-arrival the best show of his career." (Roberta Smith, The New York Times, January 6, 2006)

Global Key by James Siena is part of a continuing series of rugs designed by artists and produced and distributed by BravinLee editions. Woven in Kathmandu, the rugs are 100% handmade, from the spinning and dying of the wool, to the intricate knots made by the weavers.

BravinLee Editions is proud to be a member of GoodWeave. The GoodWeave certified label located on the back of each rug assures that no child or forced labor was used in the manufacturing of any rug we produce. Additionally, a portion of the purchase price is allocated to a fund that builds schools to further educate children in the Kathmandu area.

James Siena’s work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at galleries including Gorney Bravin + Lee, Pierogi 2000, Daniel Weinberg in Los Angeles and Pace Gallery. Siena was included in the Whitney Biennial in 2004. The recipient of multiple honors and awards, Siena received an Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York (2000); the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Competition Award (1999); and The New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting (1994). Siena lectures and teaches at numerous institutions throughout the US, including the Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio; San Francisco Art Institute; School of Visual Arts, New York; Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York; and the Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. Siena completed an artist-in-residency program at Yaddo in 2004 and 2007, and recently was elected a Director of Yaddo. James Siena currently lives and works in New York City and the Berkshires.

James Siena’s work can be found in numerous public collections including the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Philip Morris Collection, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Global Key is the fourth rug produced by BravinLee Editions—to learn more about our other rugs please visit our website: http://bravinlee.com/rugs.html

Global Key measures 144 inches by 108 inches. It is woven (100 knots per inch) from Tibetan Highland sheep wool. It is produced in an edition 15 and is hand-signed and numbered by James Siena. For pricing, availability, images for reproduction, and to make an appointment to see Global Key, please contact Meredith Rosenberg at 212-462-4404 or at Meredith@bravinlee.com.