in the galleries
made by hand
A painting made by flashlight in the woods. A drawing made over six months. A ceramic figure built up from recycled clay, fingerprint by fingerprint. These objects record something a wall text can’t reproduce and a prompt can’t generate: a person, paying attention, over time.
Made by Hand brings together five artists who make compelling, well-crafted things by hand, and let the handmade speak for itself.
At a moment when so much of what gets called contemporary either argues itself in an essay or props up an agenda, this show makes an alternative case. The value of an object is in the object. The surface, the labor, the slow accumulation of decisions. What we’re looking at when we look at handmade work is evidence of a human being.
The handmade thing, made with care and individual technique, resists two dominant forces pulling art away from its makers: conceptual work using the object to deliver a thesis, and generative work skipping the object altogether. Both produce images. Neither produces evidence of a person.
These five artists do.
The artists are Scott Espeseth, David Niec, Lisa Marie Barber, Ellee Spalding, and Makeal Flammini. They work in graphite, oil, watercolor, ceramics, fabric, and ink. None of them is making work that needs an explanation to exist.
Lisa Marie Barber builds large-scale ceramic installations and mixed-media quilts whose maximalism is itself the argument. Working from recycled “slop” clay with low-tech tools and her hands, she assembles shrine-like compositions of hand-formed figures, flowers, and ornament, drawing on Mexican folk traditions and the Catholic shrines of her Tucson upbringing. Ornamentation and abundance, in this work, denote reverence. She’s a Professor of Art at UW–Parkside, recipient of NCECA’s Emerging Artist Award and the McKnight Artist Residency, and a 2026–27 Racine Art Museum Fellow.
Scott Espeseth makes monochromatic watercolor drawings of familiar Midwestern spaces, garages, basements, backyards under flat winter light, that critics have described as “clairvoyant.” He earned his MFA in printmaking at UW–Madison studying with Frances Myers and Warrington Colescott, and has taught at Beloit College since 2002. The patience in the work isn’t decorative. It’s the work.
Makeal Flammini is a 2018 Mary L. Nohl Fellow whose drawing-based work mines the territory of motherhood, memory, and family without sentimentality. Her installation How About I Eat You? at the Haggerty Museum of Art turned a daughter’s dream into a wall-sized drawing. Her ongoing practice keeps finding ways to make domestic experience strange and exact. ***Makeal Flammini is the curators wife and the inspiration for this exhibition.
David Niec paints the moon. He goes outside at night, often alone in the woods near Crivitz, and works in oil with a flashlight, returning to the studio for months or years afterward. He studied with Tom Uttech at UW–Milwaukee and received an Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grant in 2021. Each painting is a record of one person staying still long enough to see something the rest of us are too busy to notice.
Ellee Spalding is the youngest artist in the show. Her abstract paintings and ceramics work the line between structure and randomness, using rule-based systems that invite chance into the process. She holds a BFA in painting and ceramics with a degree in psychology from UW–Milwaukee. Her recent solo Bound Less at the UWM Union Art Gallery announced an artist already thinking clearly about how form gets made.
What ties these five artists together is older than any current debate. They’re making things by hand, with care, over time, because that’s how they think the work should be made. The argument is this matters. Just stand in front of it and pay attention.
Bodies For Worlds Out There
Work by Oksana Kryzhanivska
The Foundation Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition featuring the work of Oksana Kryzhanivska. The exhibition will run from September 2 to October 8, 2026, presenting sculpture, mixed reality, sound, and digital environments that give physical presence to the hidden processes of computation.
Bodies For Worlds Out There explores how the unseen workings of computation, concealed behind screens and data towers, can be encountered through embodied experience. Across sculpture, mixed reality, sound, and digital environments, the works give physical presence to virtual systems through movement and space. Virtual forms emerge as sculptural bodies, existing simultaneously as tangible objects and responsive digital entities.
As we speculate on the unseen virtual worlds, what happens when algorithms are given material form? We move around them, encounter them, and intersect them with our own bodies in mixed and augmented realities. Can we develop a different understanding, or an alternative relationship, with these systems of zeroes and ones? The exhibition invites viewers to reconsider where virtual bodies exist and how technologies shape the imagined worlds beyond perceived horizons.
Artist Talk & Reception
A reception will be held on September 24 from 3 to 5 PM in the Foundation Gallery, running concurrently with the reception for Made by Hand in the Mathis Gallery, also located in the Rita Tallent Picken Regional Center for Arts & Humanities (the RITA).
Kryzhanivska will give an artist talk on October 8 at 2 PM in Bedford Hall at the RITA.
About Oksana Kryzhanivska
Oksana Kryzhanivska is a practicing artist and researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she heads the Creative Technologies area of the Studio Art major and the Game Art and Design certificate in the Art and Design Department at the Peck School of the Arts. She holds a Ph.D. in Computational Media and Design and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Calgary. Her scholarly work at the intersection of art, design, and computer science has resulted in publications and exhibitions at international venues, including ISMAR, ISEA, ICME, and ACM Multimedia, and has been featured in Canadian Art Magazine.
Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie and the Nickle Arts Museum, alongside a growing international presence across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, including Ars Electronica, Venice Arsenale Nord, and other media art platforms. Kryzhanivska has participated in artist residencies and collaborative art–science initiatives, contributing to experimental and research-driven creative communities. As an educator, she teaches across undergraduate and graduate levels, mentoring students in sculpture, creative coding, XR, and experimental media.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Admission is free and open to the public.
For more information, visit https://www.uwp.edu/therita/artgalleries.cfm or contact the Foundation Gallery at matthes@uwp.edu.
Upcoming Exhibits
Mathis Gallery
Art Party
Show – Dec 4 – Jan 9th
Foundation Gallery
Daniel Martin
Oct 16 – Dec 3
Senior Show
Dec 8-11
Recent Exhibitions and Events
Residency Dates | JAN 29 – MAY 11, 2026
Artist Talk | APR 1 | 1 PM, Bedford Hall, RITA
Reception | APR 1 | 1 PM, Foundations Gallery, RITA
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is pleased to announce Michael Newhall as the Spring 2026 Artist-in-Residence in Printmaking. A long-time Buddhist practitioner, ordained monk, and emeritus guiding teacher of Jikoji Zen Center, Newhall brings over six decades of artistic practice to campus. His work explores Buddhist references through assemblage sculptures, sumi ink, painting, and printmaking.
During his residency, Newhall will engage with students, staff, and the public while working in UW-Parkside’s printmaking facilities. An exhibition of his work will be on view in the Foundation Gallery at the Rita Tallent Picken Regional Center for Arts & Humanities from March 10 – April 10, 2026.
About the UW-Parkside Artist-in-Residence Program
The UW-Parkside Artist-in-Residence program supports early and mid-career artists by providing first-rate printmaking facilities and lodging. The artist interacts with students, staff, and the public while contributing to the ambitious artistic environment at Parkside. The residency program is generously supported by a grant from the Osborne and Scekic Family Foundation.
About Michael Newhall
Michael Newhall is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, printmaking, sculpture, and sumi ink drawing. He received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1982) and his BS in Comprehensive Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin (1970), with additional studies at the Art Students League of New York. Newhall has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and Naropa University. His work has been exhibited nationally, including at the Grohmann Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and numerous galleries across the country.
Newhall is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship (1985) and the 2024 Mary L. Nohl Fellowship. He served as guiding teacher at Jikoji Zen Center in California from 2004 to 2021 and continues as emeritus guiding teacher. For more information, visit michaelnewhall.com.
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday – Friday: 9AM-4PM
Admission is free and open to the public.
FEB 5 – MAY 11
Closing Reception: APR 18, 2 PM – 4 PM
The Emile H. Mathis Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition featuring the work of four UW-Parkside alumni: William Greider, Michael Nitsch, Gary Weidner, and John Zehren. The exhibition will run from February 5 to May 11, 2026.
Four from Parkside brings together four artists who studied under Professor Doug DeVinny during his nearly three decades of teaching printmaking at UW-Parkside. Opening alongside the Doug DeVinny Retrospective in the gallery below, this exhibition represents just a few of the hundreds of students whose creativity DeVinny sparked and whose skills he sharpened throughout his distinguished teaching career. Together, these concurrent exhibitions celebrate both the master and the legacy he built through his students.
William Greider
William Greider is an American artist currently living in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He graduated from UW-Parkside in 1984 and the University of Arizona in 1988, and has been a practicing artist and educator for over 35 years. His work has been shown in both group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, and is held in public and private collections including the University of Arizona, UW-Parkside, the University of Colorado, the Wustum Museum in Racine, the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay, and the Purdue Print Collection. Greider’s work takes on several divergent characteristics, as he creates artworks through three different pseudonyms, each with distinct styles, media, and themes.
Michael Nitsch
Michael Nitsch is a printmaker with over 50 years of experience, working from Pileated Press in Door County. He worked as an Exhibit Preparator for 50 years at the Racine Art Museum and the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay until his retirement. His prints have been shown in numerous exhibitions and are held in private and public collections, with nine prints recently accepted into the collection of the Racine Art Museum. Nitsch credits Doug DeVinny as one of his two main mentors, describing him as a great teacher eager to share wisdom, constructive criticism, and humor. Through his work, Nitsch explores the landscape and our physical environment, presenting natural beauty while revealing the underlying truth of humanity’s influence on our surroundings.
Gary Weidner
Gary Weidner is an American artist based in Chicago whose professional career has spanned over 30 years. His works have been included in both solo and group shows throughout the United States, as well as publications and collaborations with American designer Cynthia Rowley, actor and musician Harry Shearer, and actors Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. His mixed media canvases echo a haunting sentiment, often abstract and inspired by American literature, with an inherent rhythm and texture that plays out in lyrical expression. He is currently represented by the Gruen Gallery in Chicago and Udinotti Gallery in Scottsdale.
John Zehren
John Zehren graduated from UW-Parkside in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in Art. He moved to Chicago in 1989 to pursue work as a studio artist, and from 1997 to 2015 worked at The Field Museum, where he ran the Exhibitions Production Shop for fifteen years. Zehren has background studies in math and physics, and maintains a career as an artist showing sculpture and painting. He was nominated for a Smithsonian Artist Fellowship in 2012 and has presented on conservation case building techniques he developed at The Field Museum for the American Institute for Conservation, Drexel University, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Of his work, Zehren writes simply: “My art explores form in space.”
Reception
Visitors are invited to attend a combined opening reception for Four from Parkside and the Doug DeVinny Retrospective on February 5 from 4 to 6 PM in the Emile H. Mathis Gallery.
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday – Friday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Admission is free and open to the public.
For more information, visit https://www.uwp.edu/therita/artgalleries.cfm or contact the Mathis Gallery at matthes@uwp.edu.
FEB 5 – MAY 11
Closing Reception: APR 18, 2 PM – 4 PM
The Emile H. Mathis Gallery is honored to present a retrospective exhibition celebrating the work and legacy of Doug DeVinny, professor emeritus at UW-Parkside. The exhibition will run from February 5 to May 11, 2026.
While defined as a printmaker for most of his career, DeVinny’s early training and passion was as a painter. He received his BA in painting before completing his MFA at Indiana University. His teaching career at UW-Parkside spanned nearly three decades, sparking the creativity and sharpening the skills of thousands of students.
In 1987, DeVinny founded the Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, now known as the Parkside National Print Exhibition, which has become one of the longest-running competitive print exhibitions in the Midwest. His intent was to educate students and the community about the art of printmaking while simultaneously forging a national community of printmakers. He designed a judging process by which jurors of national merit from all over the United States came to campus to select the pieces for the show. Many of his former students were later juried into the exhibition at their alma mater.
DeVinny’s work was shown in over 150 exhibitions, including 13 solo shows, 42 regional and national group invitational exhibitions, 47 national juried exhibitions, 7 national invitational exchange portfolios, and 17 Watercolor Wisconsin exhibitions. His work is held in national collections including Indiana University, the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, University of Colorado, and the Racine Art Museum.
Of his practice, DeVinny wrote: “Something that I hold paramount in my work is curiosity. I continue to marvel about what could be and how things may evolve from a quite simple inspiration. This search has compelled me to always think about change. What I have done yesterday may be a wonderful memory, but I need to pursue what I could be doing tomorrow.”
Doug DeVinny passed away on January 4, 2025. He is dearly missed by countless former students, colleagues, and the southeastern Wisconsin art community. In his wonderful memory, we present this retrospective.
Reception
Visitors are invited to attend the opening reception on February 5 from 4 to 6 PM in the Emile H. Mathis Gallery.
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday – Friday: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Admission is free and open to the public.
For more information, visit https://www.uwp.edu/therita/artgalleries.cfm or contact the Mathis Gallery at matthes@uwp.edu.
Motorbikes | Motion | Vietnam captures the kinetic energy and daily rhythms of Vietnamese street life through images taken during Nashel’s travels in 2023 and 2024. In a country where motorbikes are essential to navigating the whirling chaos of urban landscapes, these vehicles represent more than transportation. They embody freedom and possibility for millions of Vietnamese people.
Shot candidly from the streets and as a passenger in Grab cars, these unposed photographs reveal the ingenuity and daring of Vietnamese drivers who strap, tape, and bungee an astonishing array of objects to their motorbikes, balloons, boxes, food, bottles of water, and bags of recycled plastic, in configurations that seem to defy both imagination and gravity. Children perch in front and behind, sometimes alongside a family dog, as entire families navigate the teeming, tight roads.
The photographs offer a window into the world surrounding these riders: a vendor racing to deliver pomelos, a family heading to a festive meal, a flower seller surrounded by a cacophony of colors. Together, they depict a country on the move. A people less interested in the past and more intent on rushing toward the future.
About Jonathan Nashel
Jonathan Nashel is Professor of History at Indiana University, South Bend. He received his PhD in American History from Rutgers University and teaches courses on twentieth century American history, the Cold War, and American film and photographic history.
His book Edward Lansdale’s Cold War was published in 2005 by the University of Massachusetts Press, charting the political and cultural world of an infamous CIA agent. He has two recent essays: “Cord Meyer, the Gray Man of the CIA” in Simon Willmetts, ed., Agents of Influence: The Cultural Politics of Espionage (Georgetown University Press); and “The Bonding of Allen Dulles and James Jesus Angleton” in Mark Stout and Sarah-Jane Corke, eds., Adventures in Intelligence History: Stories from The International Spy Museum and Beyond (University Press of Kansas). His current book-length project, “Darkness Visible: A Cultural History of the CIA,” explores the many ways in which the CIA figures in post-war America.
2025 marks the 29th presentation of the Parkside National Print Exhibition over thirty years since the first show opened at UW-Parkside. For three decades, the PNPE has shown some of the finest examples of original prints from artists nationwide. It is one of the longest-running competitive print exhibitions in the Midwest; founded at UW-Parkside in 1987 by printmaking professor Doug DeVinny.
This tradition continues without size limitations in the Emile H. Mathis Gallery in the Rita Tallent Picken Regional Center for Arts & Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. The exhibition will take place Aug 19- Nov 21, 2025, including a public reception, announcement of awards, and juror’s remarks on Wed, Sep 10, 4-6 PM. A full-color catalog will accompany this exhibition.
Goddesses and Monsters: Works on Paper
In an era of intense political backlash against women’s rights, this powerful exhibition raises urgent questions about reimagining feminist power through the deconstruction and reconfiguration of masculinist versions of goddess and monster iconography. Featured artists challenge long-standing patriarchal norms that have shaped goddess and monster imagery throughout art history, exploring how these representations can be reconceptualized and reclaimed from multiple, feminist perspectives.
The exhibition includes diverse works that engage with significant aesthetic and political sub-themes central to feminist renderings of goddess and monster iconography. Visitors will experience works across the figuration versus abstraction continuum, including pieces by Ruby Osorio, Amy Swartelé, Mary Anna Pomonis, Lisa Oxley, and Mei Xian Qiu. Additional themes explored include creativity, justice, solidarity, and self-expression/determination through works by Rachel Finkelstein, Maya Makrandilal, Chelsea Dean, Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, and Rosina Lardieri.
Goddesses and Monsters: Works on Paper was curated by the Association of Hysteric Curators, a Los Angeles-based collective of feminist artists and curators founded in 2014. The AHC’s mission is to advance the lives and careers of feminist artists while exploring alternative paradigms of gender and political protest through a non-hierarchical organizational structure based in dialogue and exchange.
This exhibition supplements and expands recent exhibition activity on goddess and monster feminism, following significant exhibitions at the British Museum (2022), New Museum (2023), and the Women’s Art Collection at the University of Cambridge (2024).
The AHC envisions “a future of human equality, knowing we must interrogate the customs of today in order to enable conditions for change.” For more information, please visit www.hystericcurators.com.
Participating artists include Susan Arena, Melanie Brewster, A. Laura Brody, Carolyn Castaño, Alice Clements, Chelsea Dean, Victoria Delgadillo, Tawny Featherston, Rachel Finkelstein, Malado Francine, Julija Goyd, Zeal Harris, Raghubir Kintisch, Leslie Lanxinger, Rosina Lardieri, Janet Levy, Maya Mackrandilal, Aline Mare, Patricia Maurides, Ruby Osario, Lisa Oxley, Leah Piepgras, Attic Portrait, Snežana Saraswati Petrović, Mary Anna Pomonis, Mei Xian Qiu, Jovi Schnell, Margie Schnibbe Anke, Therese Schulz, Carole Silverstein, Allison Stewart, Amy Swartelé, Kayla Tange, Rhonda Urdang, Marjan K. Vayghan, Ever Velasquez, Carey Watters, Eva Zasloff
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Our Stories
A video installation by Kevin Miyazaki
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.
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.
Mo…un…tain
Santiago Cucullu
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
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
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
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
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.
27th Parkside National Print Exhibition
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
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
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.
ART PARTY
High School Students Exhibition
The Art Party invites high school art students to exhibit their best work in a professional gallery setting, offering them an invaluable opportunity to gain recognition and inspire their peers. This year’s exhibition will feature over 70 artworks from 12 regional high schools, showcasing the extraordinary talent of students across Southeastern Wisconsin. While the majority of participating schools are based in Racine and Kenosha, the exhibition spans the region, with the northernmost school represented being Nicolet High School in Glendale. Westosha High School in Salem, WI is the westernmost.
KEITH NELSON: MISCELLANEOUS JAWNS
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is excited to host the Keith Nelson: Miscellaneous Jawns Exhibit in the Foundation Gallery. Nelson uses non-traditional materials and a distinctly sculptural process to expand the language and boundaries of painting.
16th Street Stories: Belland’s Window and Chiodo’s Lens
Belland and Chiodo are both residents of the historic 16th Street Studios in Racine, Wisconsin. This location is essential to the artworks on display. Chiodo’s Industrial Abstracts and Industrial Introverts series were composed from explorations of the expansive 150-year-old building. Belland’s Fourth Floor View paintings are observations of the urban landscape from his studio window. Building on this theme of place, Belland will also show works from his Memorial Drive series.
28th Parkside National Print Exhibition
Fine Arts Gallery | Feb 14-July 28, 2023
2023 marks the 28th presentation of the Parkside National Print Exhibition over thirty years since the first show opened at UW-Parkside. For three decades, the PNPE has shown some of the finest examples of original prints from artists nationwide. It is one of the longest-running competitive print exhibitions in the Midwest.
The exhibition was founded at UW-Parkside in 1987 by printmaking professor Doug DeVinny. This tradition continues without size limitations in the recently renamed Emile H. Mathis Gallery in the Rita Tallent Picken Regional Center for Arts and Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
About Parkside Galleries
We are educationally-driven with thematically-focused, interdisciplinary exhibitions. Although we do not have the staff to actively review all exhibition submissions, we invite artists to introduce themselves by sending an email with a link to a website address. We are always on the lookout for new and interesting work, especially if it intersects with our educational mission.
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About The Rita
Since 1968, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside has continued to build a reputation as an outstanding liberal arts institution with particularly strong fine arts programs. With The Rita Tallent Picken Regional Center for Arts & Humanities, state-of-the-art instructional facilities and stunning performance venues match award-winning academic programs and provide even greater community access. Learn more.