Born in 1937 in New York, New York, Norma Minkowitz is a contemporary artist who works primarily in fiber. Now known for her representational mesh sculptures and wearable pieces, Minkowitz began her art career creating pen-and-ink drawings. She was exposed to both drawing and textiles at an early age, but focused on drawing while studying at the Cooper Union Art School in New York in 1958. She transitioned to working in fiber and now understands her practice in relation to both mediums. In particular, Minkowitz associates the threads she uses to construct her sculptures with the intimacy of a hand-drawn line. Her sculptural works have also often been associated with vessels or nets, seeming to simultaneously to protect and ensnare. A notable figure within the fiber art movement of the 1970s, she has exhibited widely and has been collected by many institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. In 2015, her artist papers were selected to be included in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, and in 2009 she was awarded a Master of the Medium Award from the James Renwick Alliance. Minkowitz was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2003.