Current Tendencies at the Haggerty Museum Of Art
The exhibit gathers some of Wisconsin's best under one roof
Winners Circle by Colin Mathes
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The Haggerty Museum Of Art's Current Tendencies: Ten Artists From Wisconsin is a wonderfully diverse showcase for 10 of the state’s most talented artists, and it's the most exciting art exhibition you will see in Milwaukee this year.
As you enter the Haggerty, you are confronted by Colin Matthes’ floor-to-ceiling wall drawing, "Winners Circle." Brushstrokes of shiny silver ink create a chain-link fence raised high above your head to separate you from the overweight, slouching Wisconsinites blankly gazing at a colorful carnival attraction in action. Above the game’s wheel hangs a large banner declaring, “Winners Circle. The future is some of yours.” A few drawn figures stand with us on the outside of the fence gawking at the spectacle, excluded from experiences that would have probably been disappointing.
Photographer and installation artist Sonja Thomsen explores the fragility of memory and experience in her piece "Lacuna." Serene images that capture private, contemplative moments in time are systematically scattered on the gallery walls. Several of the images are presented in stacks; like stories told again and again, the images start to fade and blur until, at the very bottom of the pile, only a blank piece of paper remains.
Also included are Anne Kingsbury’s meticulously handcrafted pieces, which highlight the artist's intricate work in embroidery, clay, quilts, and beads. From a distance, Kingsbury’s 16-by-12-inch "Beaded Journal Page" looks like drawings and notes on a sketchbook page but is actually thousands of beads hand-sewn onto a delicate piece of fabric. This meticulous art practice calls to mind the obsessiveness of to-do lists and tracking time in journals.
Milwaukee’s Brent Budsberg and Shana McCaw’s installations use handmade, cinema-quality miniatures to playfully explore situations we all hope to avoid. Their piece "Lost In Transit" metaphorically transforms the glass vestibule at the entrance of the Haggerty into a body of water into which a delivery truck has plunged. The vehicle and its cargo, held in place by magnets, appear to pierce the glass. High above the doors to the right is a perfect scale model of a bridge with a split open guardrail, hinting at the cause of the tragedy.
