Now Hanging: Summer Gallery Night
Where to find art and free cheese this weekend
Work by Mike Williams, showing at The Green Gallery East
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Summer Gallery Night is often the best Gallery Night of the year because it occurs during one of Milwaukee’s three months of tolerable weather—and it just works better to wander from gallery to gallery when it doesn’t hurt to be outside. This can mean that crowds are thicker, but don’t let that ruin your fun. The more the merrier, we at Decider always say. Just use this handy guide to make the most of your Gallery Night.
First, give it up for the ladies by heading over to Walker’s Point Center For The Arts to see Decorative Directive, featuring works by Regan Golden and Jennifer Harris. They explore ideas of femininity by employing techniques and materials from traditional women’s crafts. At the Milwaukee Institute Of Art And Design’s Brooks Stevens Gallery, The Great American Kitchen: 1900-2010 offers a look at attitudes toward women over the years through the lens of kitchen design. Finally, check out Whacked Ladies at the Borg Ward Collective, where the art depicts the female victims of political assassins.
Borg Ward’s not on the official Gallery Night list, but neither are a bunch of other hot spots around town. At The Green Gallery East, If God Could Draw, featuring drawings by Nick Lowe and Mike Williams, and (N)icholas (F)rank (S)elects: Drawings From The Hermetic Collection are wrapping up this weekend. Anyone who visits on Friday at 8 p.m. will be treated to a poetry reading by Matt Cook. Off-the-map galleries aren’t necessarily off the loop, though. Even the Third Ward is home to unofficial Gallery Night destinations, like Portrait Society Gallery, where works by artists Kay Knight, Ariana Huggett, and Keiler Sensenbrenner grace the walls for Interior/Exterior: Home as Portrait. While in the Third Ward, head across the river to the Pritzlaff Building (333 N. Plankinton Ave.) for The Pritzlaff Project, which features 13 installations in a Gallery Night-only show curated by Brent Budsberg and Shana McCaw. Finally, look for the first of IN:SITE’s temporary installations, some of which are popping up all over the Park East Corridor in time for Gallery Night.
Back to the official brochure: The Jazz Gallery in Riverwest opens The Permission To Paint, Please! Tribute Exhibition curated by Evelyn Patricia Terry, who has written a book on the history of black artists in Wisconsin. The works here were created by artists who have died since the author finished her research. Also opening on Gallery Night is Rank Strangers at Dean Jensen Gallery, with Susana Raab's photographs exploring fast-food culture and ideas of leisure in America. Opening on Gallery Day (July 25) is I Shoot People at Hot Pop, featuring portraits of ’90s hip-hop artists by Trevor Traynor, but the Ric Stultz show there is still up Friday night.
Next, it’s time to go to school. In addition to the kitchen show at MIAD, there’s Generate, an alumni show curated by the now-defunct Armoury Gallery’s Cassandra Smith and held where Paper Boat Boutique And Gallery once stood. Among the 22 MIAD grads showing are Harvey Opgenorth, Nate Page, and Jesus Ali. The show closes July 29, so make sure you get there soon. Then check out Jump Cut Pop at Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum, with 50 pop-art works by Eduardo Paolozzi, Tadanori Yokoo, Jane Hammond, and others. Roy Staab: Four Seasons/Four Corners at inova/Kenilworth is UWM’s offering, spanning 40 years of Staab’s work. And, hey—let’s not forget about the Grohmann Museum at MSOE. Its current exhibit is Wisconsin at Work: Thorsten Lindberg Paintings And Drawings From The MCHS Collection. The works featured here were created by Lindberg as part of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration.
Finally, head over to MAM After Dark to check out the Milwaukee Art Museum’s current exhibit, American Originals, watch the movie Clue, drink a little, and more. American Originals features the works of eight American modernists who first showed together 100 years ago.
