Radical Softness: The Responsive Art of Janet Echelman

Radical Softness is a visual compendium of American artist Janet Echelman's oeuvre, including detailed project documentation, archival source materials, and a fascinating illustrated chronology.

Over the past twenty-five years, Janet Echelman has created monumentally scaled public sculptures using unlikely materials, from atomized water particles to engineered fiber fifteen times stronger than steel. She weaves ancient craft and computational modeling software into an utterly unique art form.

Radical Softness is a comprehensive sourcebook that unpacks Echelman's vital practice and her ongoing commitment to "Taking Imagination Seriously," the title of her TED Talk which has been translated into thirty-five languages and has more than two million views. It features mesmerizing color photographs, a foreword by fellow creative Swizz Beatz, and contributions from a diverse range of internationally recognized scholars, engineers, designers, architects, and curators contextualizing the interdisciplinary impact of Echelman's work within the fields of global art history, architecture, computation, and landscape architecture.

POPULAR MODERN ARTIST: Janet Echelman is renowned worldwide for her public woven structures and is a sought-after lecturer and keynote speaker. Oprah Winfrey once ranked her work #1 on her list of "50 Things That Make You Say Wow!" and Echelman was named an Architectural Digest Innovator for "changing the very essence of urban spaces." She has been featured widely in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Interiors, The Washington Post, Architectural Record, Wired, Travel and Leisure, and Time, to name just a few.

AWARD-WINNING SCULPTURE WORK: Having created more than fifty artworks in twenty-two countries, Janet Echelman is celebrated for transforming open spaces. She was one of Planetizen's 100 Most Influential Urbanists, Past and Present, and winner of the Boston Society for Architecture's Harleston Parker Medal in 2023, and received Dezeen's installation Design of the Year award in 2022.

INTERNATIONAL INSTALLATIONS AND EXHIBITIONS: Echelman's 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, Columbus (OH), and St. Petersburg (FL) that transform daily with colored light.

Perfect for:

• Fans of Janet Echelman and women artists of the 21st century
• Gift-giving to art lovers, art students, and art history buffs
• Sculpture, architecture, and urban design enthusiasts
• Anyone interested in material science, structural and aeronautical engineering, and computer science

Author: Gloria Sutton
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Published: 09/16/2025
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 3.75lbs
Size: 11.40h x 8.80w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781797228679

About the Author
Gloria Sutton is an art historian and curator whose scholarship focuses on the intersection of computational networks and visual art. She is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History and New Media at Northeastern University and a research affiliate in the Art, Culture, and Technology program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sutton has been a fellow at The Carpenter Center for Visual Art at Harvard University and the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.