Now Hanging: Lovable Like Orphan Kitties and Bastard Children
Green Gallery East brings L.A. to Milwaukee's east side
Article Tools
Just opened in January, Green Gallery East is already a promising addition to Milwaukee’s art scene, playing host to refreshingly smart and edgy shows. For its latest exhibit, Green Gallery brought in a different city’s offerings for Milwaukeeans to check out: Lovable Like Orphan Kitties and Bastard Children boasts a sampling of the Los Angeles contemporary art scene. Curators Kristin Calabrese and Joshua Aster personally flew in with the 78 paintings, all of which are less than one square foot, and most of which are the works of artists living in L.A.
Why 78 paintings? “We figured out how much space we had and divided by the number of paintings. Each painting got 13.5 inches of space,” Green Gallery co-owner John Riepenhoff tells Decider. To further democratize the show, paintings were hung in alphabetical order. Calabrese also requested that no frames or glass be used as another way to make shipping less of a hassle and the work less likely to be damaged.
Despite the guidelines, the show is as diverse and exciting as the participating artists. Except for one artist from Phoenix and four from New York, all the artists live in L.A. Their backgrounds vary from internationally recognized artists Stephen Westfall and Kenny Scharf to creative Angelinos that make their living as florists, musicians, and fashion designers.
“It’d be pretty hard not to find something you like,” Riepenhoff says. “It’s a survey of the contemporary painting scene in L.A. transported to Milwaukee.” Prices range from $60 up to $4,000, and the sensibilities run the gamut from realism to abstract to geometric to conceptual. Paintings are on canvas, wood, and even cardboard boxes. The idea for the title “was just stream of consciousness,” Calabrese says. “But I sort of think of paintings as just these really, loveable little things that need a home.”
