in the galleries

Deb Sokolow: Loose History

Catalog Exhibition and Virtual Exhibition

The selection of drawings included in the exhibition present seemingly harmless anecdotes on a number of former U.S. presidents, unnamed presidential candidates, campaigns, intelligence figures, and a presidential lover.

Virtual Exhibition  Catalog Artist Talk Recording Discussion Recording

Sky Hopinka

Virtual Exhibition

Sky Hopinka is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and a descendent of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. His videos use figures and texts, layered and dense in image and sound, movement and meaning, to question the complications of knowledge, access, and artifact.

Virtual Exhibition

Building an Online Presence in the World of Art

Discussion with Kate Mothes

From the perspective of running and curating an online contemporary art platform, Kate Mothes discusses the quickly changing landscape of online presence in the art world, especially the emergence of virtual platforms over the last several years, from artist-run culture to pandemic phenomenon. Additionally she will discuss why an online presence is essential for professional artists today, especially social media and websites, along with tips for time management and networking.

Discussion Recording

About the Artist
Kate Mothes is founder and curator of Young Space and Co-founder/Editor of Dovetail Magazine. Young Space (yngspc) is an independent, itinerant, online-offline contemporary art platform emphasizing early career and emerging artists. Dovetail Magazine is an independent online + print contemporary arts publication that positions contemporary visual art in dialogue with design, architecture, photography, travel, and global visual culture. Mothes earned a Bachelors in Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Masters in the History of Art, Theory and Display from Edinburgh College of Art at the University of Edinburgh. She is currently based in Northeast Wisconsin.

Esther Pearl Watson: Dream Believer

Catalog Exhibition

Watson grew up in series of small towns outside of Dallas, Texas with her siblings, mother, and flying saucer-building father, Gene. Her family moved often, since her father's hobby of building huge flying saucers out of scrap metal and car engines didn't always sit well with the neighbors. Esther's pieces are often overtly narrative, clear but mysterious scenes of houses or figures ornamented with snippets of prose telling just enough to get the viewer's own imagination engaged, wanting to know more. Some are about family, some about places, all have a rich interior life. Her works without words are just as suggestive of story, also exerting a deep emotional pull. 

Exhibition Catalog

Kevin Miyazaki: Kuroshio

Catalog Exhibition

Miyazaki’s exhibition tells a story of immigration and migration. It begins by documenting the reuse of buildings from the Tule Lake and Heart Mountain Japanese internment camps, where members of Miyazaki’s father’s family were incarcerated during World War ll. The word “camp” is used by most Nisei, or first-generation Japanese Americans, to describe both the physical place they were held, as well as the overall wartime incarceration experience itself. Miyazaki’s interests lie in examining the changing value of architectural forms constructed as a result of wartime hysteria and racist attitudes. The work continues by documenting additional elements and moments from Miyazaki’s personal history that communicates something larger about our shared humanity.

Exhibition Catalog

Our Stories

A video installation by Kevin Miyazaki
 

View Virtual Exhibition

Many of the themes explored in Kevin Miyazaki's artwork are centered around his family history and the larger story of Japanese Americans in this country. He is deeply interested in the ancestors who came before him, the paths of their migration, the stories of their lives and their place in American society. These ideas were on view during an exhibition at UW-Parkside in November 2019-January 2020, with a hope that they inspire viewers to think more deeply about their own American ethnic story.

In the interest of exploring other individual family histories, and to celebrate the diversity present on the UW-Parkside campus, Miyazaki met and photographed students from the classes of Sarah Piña, Assistant Professor of Latina/o Literature and Caitlin Quintenz, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Modern Languages Department. The students were encouraged to write about their family history - and the images and text were made into a 43-minute video.

About the Artist

Kevin J. Miyazaki is an artist and photographer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His artwork focuses on issues of ethnicity, migration and place, often addressing family history and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War ll. Miyazaki was born and raised in suburban Milwaukee, culturally and physically far from ancestral roots in Japan, Hawaii, and Washington state. His photographs have been exhibited at venues including Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Griffin Museum of Photography, Museum of Wisconsin Art, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, and Hyde Park Art Center.

Mo...un...tain

Santiago Cucullu

Virtual Exhibition Artist Talk Recording

Mo...un...tain is an exhibition of new work by Argentinian-born artist Santiago Cucullu. Emphasizing the subtleties of intuitive pacing and spatial orientation, Cucullu makes work using a duality of materials and appropriation to indicate that an exhibition space can act to trigger memories and experiences that we may encounter as rarified moments. Cucullu’s current exhibition, Mo…un...tain, brings to mind the accumulation of the scope of issues in our current experience. Composed of a wall of drawings, a large-scale photo installation, and a vinyl and ceramic wall work, the exhibition in part illustrates this, while also pushing against the current order. For Mo…un…tain, Cucullu looked for moments that were melancholy, but sometimes humorous, while seeming to be removed from, but relevant to our current experience of Covid-19 and a rapidly deteriorating political situation. About the Artist Santiago Cucullu currently lives in Milwaukee, WI. He has exhibited at the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis; Blum and Poe Gallery, Los Angeles; Fondazione Sandretto Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and Gavin Brown Enterprise at Passerby, New York; Musee de Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York; and Loock Galerie in Berlin. He has been included in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum, New York; the Singapore Biennial at the Biennial of the Americas, Denver, and the Wisconsin Triennial at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. He holds a MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1999). Mo...un...tain Santiago Cucullu Through Dec 16 Mo...un...tain is an exhibition of new work by Argentinian-born artist Santiago Cucullu. Emphasizing the subtleties of intuitive pacing and spatial orientation, Cucullu makes work using a duality of materials and appropriation to indicate that an exhibition space can act to trigger memories and experiences that we may encounter as rarified moments. Cucullu’s current exhibition, Mo…un...tain, brings to mind the accumulation of the scope of issues in our current experience. Composed of a wall of drawings, a large-scale photo installation, and a vinyl and ceramic wall work, the exhibition in part illustrates this, while also pushing against the current order. For Mo…un…tain, Cucullu looked for moments that were melancholy, but sometimes humorous, while seeming to be removed from, but relevant to our current experience of Covid-19 and a rapidly deteriorating political situation.

About the Artist
Santiago Cucullu currently lives in Milwaukee, WI. He has exhibited at the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis; Blum and Poe Gallery, Los Angeles; Fondazione Sandretto Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and Gavin Brown Enterprise at Passerby, New York; Musee de Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York; and Loock Galerie in Berlin. He has been included in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum, New York; the Singapore Biennial at the Biennial of the Americas, Denver, and the Wisconsin Triennial at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. He holds a MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1999).

Art = Heart

View Virtual Exhibition

We asked K12 students in our region to think about how being creative and making art brings them joy, comfort, peace, happiness—all things for a positive mindset. Then they translated those thoughts into amazing original artwork: photographs, digital art, paintings, drawings, and more.
 

AWARD WINNERS (PDF)
Kimberly Lagunas | Best in Show
Loden Chapman | Most Inventive
Helene Holland | Campus Choice
Esme Reilly | Most Heart
Roger Martinez | Dean's Favorite

The Strike Was Broken: Redacted Historical Marker Rubbings
Shaun Slifer

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Shaun Slifer makes rubbings of historical markers as a project for understanding the language of state-sanctioned history through intentional erasure and omission which mirrors that of many “official” narratives. This work interrupts the provisional authority of the historical marker by disrupting static, languid interpretations of the plaque’s narrative.

He is focused on state-sanctioned historical plaques that feature language which glosses over or replaces colonialism, state oppression, and military violence with truncated accounts that marginalize the motivation and origin of popular revolts, disregard whole communities, and other acts of erasure. He searches for wording that drives a particular, dominant historical narrative, carefully excluding, or redacting, the other text on the plaque. By letting negative space dominate the large sheets of paper, critical sections of directive language stand out, akin to the practice of erasure poetry.

These wax-relief rubbings are made on-site using hand-made crayons. His process is deliberately visible, public and accessible. Wearing a high-vis fluorescent vest, Slifer carries a roll of durable Tyvek paper, crayons that have been melted into palm-sized discs, and a short ladder. These rubbings are made during daylight hours while looking similar to a municipal worker.

About the Artist

Shaun Slifer (b.1979) is an Appalachian artist, nonfiction author, self-taught historian, scrimshander, and museum professional based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His multidisciplinary creative work challenges the oppression of currently-dominant historical narratives, both social and ecological. 

He is the Creative Director at the award-winning West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, and a founding member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative. He is an original member of the now-disbanded Howling Mob Society, and former collaborator with Street Art Workers.

Shaun has exhibited internationally in a variety of museums, galleries, and nonprofit spaces, as well as non-authorized public settings. He has presented on his research and creative practice at numerous universities and conferences in the United States and Western Europe. His work has been exhibited across the US and the world, including at the Queens Museum, the Biennial of Graphic Arts (Ljubljana, Slovenia), and the U.S. Pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia (Italy). For his work with the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, he was presented with Honorary Membership in the United Mine Workers of America, Local 1440 in Matewan, WV (he is now an Associate Member). His forthcoming book, So Much To Be Angry About: Appalachian Movement Press 1969-79 will be available on West Virginia University Press in the spring of 2021.

Currently living in Pittsburgh, PA, with roots in Nebraska and Tennessee, he received a BFA with a concentration in sculpture from Watkins College of Art in Nashville in 2003.

Beginnings: three early-career Wisconsin artists
Alyssa Krause | Daniel McCullough |  LaNia Sproles

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LaNia Sproles is exhibiting large cutout mixed media figurative collages. The philosophies of self-perception, queer and feminist theories, and inherent racial dogmas are essential to her work.

Alyssa Krause’s paintings question the parameters of perception. Her work focuses on the nuances in how an image is recognized. Rules are set up before painting as a way to create a border between herself and the work, making each painting surprising and fresh.

Daniel McCullough investigates the atmosphere of place through chance-based approaches to photography. He uses the mysterious space between the camera lens and outside world to make his work. Through physical manipulations onto the surface of film prior to exposure, McCullough incorporates expressive gestures into photographic observations. He combines more straightforward digital captures with his hand-manipulated images on film to create a layered view of his subjects. 

About the Artists

Alyssa Krause, Milwaukee, WI, received her BFA with an emphasis in Painting & Drawing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2019. Her work has been shown locally in Milwaukee and across the Midwest. She is currently represented by Tappan Collective LA.

Daniel McCullough is a visual artist based in Milwaukee, WI. Daniel received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 2018. He was selected for the Plum Blossom Initiative Bridge Work 04 Professional Development Program, 2018-2019. Daniel has shown his work both regionally and nationally. He is represented by the Alice Wilds, Milwaukee, WI. 

LaNia Sproles, Milwaukee, WI, graduated with a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2017. She recently completed her year as a 2019 Mary L. Nohl fellow and teaching artist in residence at the Lynden Sculpture Garden in Milwaukee. She has a solo exhibition at the Wright Museum, Beloit, WI, that runs through April 2, 2021.

Kledage, sculptural objects from Gerit Grimm

View Virtual Exhibition  View Ceramics Demonstration

Kledage (meaning clothing in German) is a collection of sculptural objects from Gerit Grimm including both her highly-acclaimed, wheel-thrown ceramic figures and her recent fabric sculpture.

Grimm’s ceramic works pair an often-whimsical subject matter steeped in folklore, referencing fairytales, fables, and princesses with impressive feats of technical virtuosity and physical scale. The surface of her work is austere and stone-like; feeling monumental and permanent.

Five handmade fabric dresses, which reference the same folk traditions and fairytales of her clay sculptures, are included in this exhibition. During Grimm’s recent sabbatical she was locked out of her communal Ceramic studio and turned to fabric as a way to continue making during Covid-19. After a three-month class on garment making in Berlin, Grimm began making her own textile sculptures. These sculptures are adaptations of the German dirndl, made by combining traditional fabrics with contemporary fabrics containing Grimm’s hand-drawn fairytales and peasant scenes.
 

About the Artist

Gerit Grimm was born in Halle, German Democratic Republic. In 1995, she finished her apprenticeship, learning the traditional German trade as a potter at the “Altbürgeler blau-weiss GmbH” in Bürgel, Germany and worked as a Journeyman for Joachim Jung in Glashagen, Germany. She earned an Art and Design Diploma in 2001 studying ceramics at Burg Giebichenstein, Halle, Germany. In 2002, she was awarded with the German DAAD Government Grant for the University of Michigan School of Art and Design, where she graduated with an MA in 2002. She received her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2004. She has taught at CSULB, Pitzer College, Doane College and MSU Bozeman and has worked at major residencies like Mc Coll Center, Bemis Center, Kohler Arts & Industry Program and Archie Bray Foundation. In 2009 NET Television created “Fantasia in Clay” a Nebraska Story about artist Gerit Grimm. Grimm is now an Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

27^th Parkside National Print Exhibition

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One of the longest-running competitive print exhibitions in the Midwest, the Parkside National Print Exhibition has shown some of the finest examples of original prints from artists nationwide. 

Juror John Hitchcock | Artist, Professor of Art and Associate Dean of Arts at UW-Madison

Artist Talk Recording

About the Artist
Rafael Francisco Salas is a Wisconsin-based artist. He combines landscape, the legacy of portraiture, architecture, and country music into artwork that evokes a strange, rural poetry. It reflects a personal journey of mixed race identity, conflict, beauty and devotion played out on the vast landscapes of rural Wisconsin.

His work has been exhibited in New York City, San Diego, Boston, as well as many venues in the Midwest including The Neville Public Museum, The Museum of Wisconsin Art, The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Dean Jensen gallery, Circa Gallery and Frank Juarez Gallery. His work is represented by Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Salas has also worked as an art critic for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Newcity Art in Chicago and Urban Milwaukee. Salas is a professor of art at Ripon College in Ripon, WI.

From the Artist
My artwork reflects on American tradition and identity. It speaks to an indignant desire for a dream continually just beyond reach. It is a strange, rural poetry of aspiration and poignant reality, a striver’s endeavor of high and low culture, situated between the elevated and the abject.

Country music is the appropriate soundtrack.

Together Again: Racine Kenosha

Virtual Exhibition

UW-Parkside is pleased to host Together Again, our second survey of contemporary artists working in Racine and Kenosha as the kickoff event for our celebration of 10 Years at the Rita Tallent Picken Center for Arts & Humanities. This all-media exhibition was juried by Shana McCaw, formerly Senior Curator at the Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Museums, now Creative Director and Co-Founder at Current Projects in Milwaukee, WI.

Material Matters: A Visual Exploration of Social and Environmental Transformation

Maureen Fritchen | Glenn Williams

This exhibition features the distinct yet harmonious works of Maureen Fritchen and Glenn Williams, two artists who delve into the impact of consumerism, waste, and social shifts on our world.

Fritchen explores industrial waste materials, particularly polyethylene foam, as her principal medium. Non-biodegradable packaging materials that threaten our planet are repurposed as sensuous biomorphic forms. They are as alluring as they are disturbing.

Play, a vital element of Fritchen’s process, serves as a liberating force, allowing for experimentation and the freedom to fail. Materials dictate form, leading to surprising outcomes. Her foray into three-dimensional forms marks a pivotal moment in her career, promising a visually compelling experience for the audience.

Williams embraces the rapidly changing landscape of population demographics and the prevalence of environmental fluctuations. His work reflects a deep engagement with the transformative period we find ourselves in, where social reality is in constant flux on both local and global scales.

Williams deconstructs, reconstructs, and reflects accepted mores, exposing and occasionally questioning their impact on diverse social realities. The artist's exploration extends to understanding how these constructs shape our perceptions of the world and influence human interactions across social, political, and environmental dimensions. Driving the work is William’s interest in the subtle interruptions and uncalculated variables that compel us to reevaluate, or at least pay attention to, our accepted value systems.

Horseplay: A Buck Wilde Sideshow  

Plagued by misfortune, poor luck, and downright foolishness, this exhibition centers around a pantomime horse show in ruins. Buck Wilde, a former rodeo clown and entertainer, intended for the two-person act to tour the country but continual missteps forced its premature shuttering, until now! For a limited time, see and interact with the eclectic collection of objects and ephemera from Buck Wilde’s intended sideshow in its gallery debut.