Continuum 2022: Sitelines 42

Professor Emerita Leslie Vansen alongside 51 Alumni

September 7 - 22, 2022

Kenilworth Square East Gallery University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Bjorn Akerblom William Andersen Melanie Ariens Liz Bachhuber James Barany Steve Burnham Allison B. Cooke Michael Davidson Josiah Ellner John Fatica Leslie Fedorchuk Brian Felten Mariah Ferrari Nina Ghanbarzadeh Kevin Giese

Regan Golden Matthew Groshek

Kristin Haas Sean Heiser Kathy Hofmann Ariana Huggett Marc Jacobson Hai-Chi Jihn Mutòpe J. Johnson Nykoli Koslow Alyssa Krause Matthew Lee Rebekah Linner kathryn e. martin-meurer Edmund Mathews Tyler Meuninck Maggie Michael A. Bill Miller Nick Naber

Chris Niver Amy O’Neill Melanie Pankau Keith Pitts Deidre Prosen Nirmal Raja Barbara Reinhart Paula Schulze Joe Steiner Brennen Steines

Adam Stoner Christine Style Corbett Toomsen Emily Tripp Michael Ware Sonji Yarbrough Hunt Jenna Youngwood

Acknowledgments

It is an honor to present selected works from my career at UWM. I am grateful to the Art and Design Executive Committee for their generous encouragement to show this work. Special thanks go to Kyoung Ae Cho for her months of thorough assistance with all aspects of planning and designing the exhibition. My faculty and staff colleagues have been generous in their support throughout my teaching years. I have had the good fortunate to work with hundreds of students at UWM and have fully enjoyed their challenges and successes. They always gave me much more than I was ever able to offer them. The group of alumni artists showing their work here along with me represents that history of exciting former students.

I am indebted to Michael Lagerman’s work to photograph those paintings in the exhibition that predated digital photography. He, Brian Felten, and Adam Hawk spent hours moving my paintings between studio spaces, photo shoot sites and the gallery. Robert Grame’s thoughtful work with the catalog design provides important continuity between the exhibition itself and the longer term involvement with the work that the documentation makes possible.

Finally, the support of my family has been essential to my entire studio production career as represented by this exhibition. My husband’s enthusiastic interest in my studio practice knew no bounds. He has been unfailingly supportive, insightful and challenging. Our long years of productive partnership and eager dialog are at the heart of this exhibition.

CREDITS

Peck School of the Arts Kevin Hartman, Interim Dean

Peck School of the Arts Ana Conant, Development Director

Department of Art and Design Kim Cosier, Co-Chair Jessica Mueninck-Ganger, Co-Chair

John Colt Memorial Fund

Exhibition Coordinator Kyoung Ae Cho, Professor of Fibers

Exhibition File Management Shelby Desantis, Visual Arts Programs Assistant

Catalog Design

Robert Grame, Associate Professor of Design and Visual Communication

Gallery Preparation Mischa Premeau, Facilities & Operations

Forward

We are honored to introduce Continuum 2022: Sitelines 42. Through this exhibition we bear witness to the profound effects Professor Emeritus Leslie Vansen’s forty-two years of artistic research and teaching have had at UWM. Having started her career here in 1978, Vansen blazed trails for many of us who have endeavored to follow in her footsteps. Her mentorship has been of incalculable value to her colleagues as well as to the hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students with whom she has worked.

Like the selection of artists’ works in the exhibition space, the depth and range of Vansen’s individual paintings capture a remarkable accumulation of experiences and memories. Vansen describes her process as, “cyclical events which shape space, control form and encourage or inhibit change are evoked metaphorically through methodical applications of paint which conceal and reveal their layered identities.” Her process is intentional and emerges from a confident hand. Her paintings yield surfaces, colors, and paths that vacillate, shift through time and space, and both simultaneously guide and disorient. Vansen’s work is an invitation to experience overlapping layers of ideas and novel explorations of physical and social environments. Her wonderfully varied and captivating modes of mark making leave significant, lasting impressions.

Vansen is an incredibly productive and accomplished artist who has exhibited extensively over the course of her career; her work is in numerous public and private collections. Thirty of her own pieces are exhibited here beside the work of fifty-one of her former students. The confines of space forced Vansen to limit the number of alumni who could be included though it is her intention that this show be a celebration of all of her former students. The exhibition is evidence that Leslie Vansen has left an indelible mark on the artistic community in Milwaukee and beyond.

Kim Cosier and Jessica Meuninck-Ganger Co-Chairs, Department of Art and Design

Photo credit: Michael Lagerman “The dynamic limbo and inherent contradictions within order, chaos and inexorable outcome give the work its associations with nature and the familiarity of social interactions.”

Leslie Vansen Artist Statement

The images in my paintings are literally, concretely “constructed” from obvious “abstract” components of visual forms - surface, lines, color, space. These embody a repetitive continuum of memory and association with nature and architecture as experienced daily in an urban context. No reference to one place or moment is intended; cumulative sensations of existence become visual force fields and remembered repetitive interactions. Cyclical events which shape space, control form and encourage or inhibit change are evoked metaphorically through methodical applications of paint which conceal and reveal their layered identities. The paintings’ scale corresponds to my own physical presence in space; their surfaces report the actions of my body. The paintings are chaotic meanderings intersected by imposed structural grids. The juxtaposition of meander and structure generates “time,” postpones solution and avoids hierarchy. The dynamic limbo and inherent contradictions within order, chaos and inexorable outcome give the work its associations with nature and the familiarity of social interactions. Where expression is possible here, it is accessible via analogy, metaphor, tactile presence, and viewer confrontation.

Every procedural tactile step taken in the construction of the paintings is made insistently visible, recording the “work” that has made the existence of the finished painting possible. At the same time, the logic of that visible process is “hidden in plain sight” in the final image. Duration and methodology consume themselves to disappear into the history of their own making and become something else, obvious, unavoidable and quite different from the original intentions.

Leslie Vansen

Looking back to 1978 to rediscover where the current body of my studio work has traveled over its more than 40 years has been an enlightening experience. A slow evolution and many continuities became immediately apparent.

An obvious language of forms emerged early in the 1980’s and developed gradually. That language of forms started with small black and white drawings using reconstructed observed figures and an intentional juxtaposition between organic and geometric conditions. Along with the drawings, words like revisit, reiterate, reconstruct, revise, and respond became central to the thinking and actions that produced those paintings.

Observed subjects, especially in movement, established the core of my vocabulary of forms and painting actions. These subjects are translated into linear overlay and embedded in source drawings as image layouts against which the drawn restructuring becomes an armature of geometry and line. Photographs of ordinary objects and familiar people become linear renditions of themselves to take on new identities. The vitality of the source images informs the drawings but the subjects themselves – found figures, observed sculptures, mechanical objects - are not visible in the finished paintings even though their presence is at the beginning point of every work.

Over time, the role of the drawn components for each painting’s visual field shifted from primary “image” for each painting to “active participant,” functioning as an organic underlayment of shape and suggestive presence along with systematic perspectival elements and invented icons for motion. By now those source components are so layered through each other that their separate identities are absorbed in each new overall image.

The earliest paintings here, like Spumoni, foregrounded the interplay between the drawn linear restructuring of figurative subjects and the stained fields of color applied to enhance the visual tactility of the visible canvas texture while keeping all the drawing and painted areas clear and obvious. Painted lines, pencil lines and stained applications remain evident in the final results.

Then between 1979 and 1989, it is clear that methodical searches for new studio production strategies, formats, palette decisions, and source images occurred simulta neously. Full palette solutions like those in Grouse Drab were followed in the years going into the 1990’s by a sequence of palette challenges to narrow and then re-expand the hue decisions being made.

First, there was a shift to chromatic grays among the paintings during the late 1980’s. These, like Sitar, focus sometimes on an overall tonality of mid value “color” that avoids consistent depth readings in favor of fluctuations between in and out and back and forth movements. The grays flicker across color areas that are close in their levels of brightness and accomplish sensations of light. In other chromatic gray paintings, like Pronk, the stained and thrown forms appear as abstract “figures” even though specific references to subject matter are avoided. The chromatic gray paintings were followed by paintings employing palette dichotomies using tight limitations of black and white. Those dichotomies included an overt left and right open book kind of division, as in Estufa and Scusi. It’s clear looking back at the full sequence of explorations that this period of black and white palette restrictions proved essential to the work that followed.

A natural return to limited hue-based palettes to explore new constructed color application methods occurred between Seiche and Strictly Speaking as the paintings jump away from the black and white juxtapositions of the early 1990’s.

Along with the four decade search for a pictorial language focus for the images in each painting, there was at the same time, a push to explore the act of painting itself as a kind of character in the abstract narrative of the paintings. First, surfaces were stained to keep both the canvas texture and the pencil lines of the small source drawings visible. Then, surface solutions moved between restrained and delicate in the early stained pieces through a series of application decisions to turn those stains into images and gestural exaggerations of brushstrokes.

Finally, a shift in my studio research appears near the end of the 1980’s. Those investigations caused a lively internal dialog, sometimes a battle between the known minimalist models which formed such a vital part of my earliest graduate studies and the challenges to those models which accelerated internationally during the 1980’s. My own studio production retreated temporarily to drawing and to works on paper. The emphasis on the visibility of paint application and canvas surface qualities I had pursued earlier, shifted to the possibility of a narrative in the paint itself and in its labor. When I returned to work on canvas, the paint application emphasis had been transformed and slowed from the tactile elegance of the more minimal works into a layered, repetitive deconstruction of the painting process to merge line and color completely so that every part of every painting was built from long painted linear color strokes. The results produce a composite appearance from a distance, an emphasis on the labor of “constructing” an image from process up close, and an invitation to integrate the composite appearance and constructed color forms over and over again as a way of entering each painting to find interpretations for its image.

“Along with the four decade search for a pictorial language focus for the images in each painting, there was at the same time, a push to explore the act of painting itself as a kind of character in the abstract narrative of the paintings.”

The Mind’s Eye

Postscript, 1999 Acrylic on paper board 11” x 25” unframed

Photo credit: Alan Magayne-Roshak

Brae

2008

and graphite on paper board

Photo credit: Alan Magayne-Roshak

Courtesy of the artist and The Alice Wilds

Preface, 2008 Acrylic on paper board 11” x 25” unframed

Photo credit (if any). Alan Magayne-Roshak

Photo

of the artist and The Alice Wilds

Courtesy of the artist and The Alice Wilds

Leslie Vansen Biography

EDUCATION

1970 Master of Fine Arts, Painting and Drawing, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado

1967 Bachelor of Arts, Art, Printmaking (emphasis) University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020 “Beginning and Continuing,” The Alice Wilds Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2013 “Systems for Abstraction,” James Watrous Gallery of Wisconsin Art, Overture Center, Madison, Wisconsin

2008 “Leslie Vansen: Dichotomies, Paintings 1992-2008” Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin

2003 “Leslie Vansen,” Recent Paintings, inova Gallery Three, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

2002 “Hidden in Plain Sight,” Wisconsin Academy of Science and Art, Madison, Wisconsin

“Follies, Fancies, and Fugues II,” Cedar Rapids Art Museum, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

1996 “Leslie Vansen,” University of Wisconsin-Center System, Waukesha County

“Follies, Fancies, and Fugues,” Cardinal Stritch College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1989 “Recent Paintings, Leslie Vansen,” Katie Gingrass Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1985 “Inaugural Exhibition,” Layton Gallery, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1983 Charles A. Wustum Museum of Art, Racine, Wisconsin Seuferer/Chosy Gallery, Madison, Wisconsin

1982 Friends Gallery, Minneapolis Institute of Art

1981 University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, Wisconsin Waterloo Municipal Galleries, Waterloo, Iowa, (also 1970)

1980 Mount Mary College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, One Person Exhibition

INVITATIONAL AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2017 “Surfacing,” University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, January/February

“Fifty Years of Watercolor Wisconsin, Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin

“Error as Architecture,” Jazz Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, group exhibition

“Interface: Meetings of Art and Technology,” Invitational Group Exhibition, Union Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

2013 Remarkable Women, Peltz Gallery, Milwaukee Wisconsin (1992-2013)

2012 Michelle Grabner: The Inova Survey, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Inova Gallery

2011 “Peripheral Vision: Leslie Vansen and Charles Vansen Paintings,

1990 - Present,” Town Center Gallery, St. Johns by the Lake, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2004 “A Decade of Art,” Wisconsin Academy Watrous Gallery of Wisconsin Art, Overture Center, Madison, Wisconsin

1999 Group Exhibition, Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

“ Wisconsin Art Since 1990,” Milwaukee Art Museum

1992 Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

“Remarkable Women,” Peltz Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (also 1993-2013)

1991 Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, Two Person Exhibition

1990 Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, Group Exhibition

1989 “ Wisconsin Perspective: 2 and 3 Dimensional Works,” Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, Delaware

Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, Group Exhibition

Riveredge Gallery, Mishicot, Wisconsin, Group Exhibition

1988 “Abstract Painting in Wisconsin,” Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin

New Art from Wisconsin, 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois

1987 “Four Schools of Milwaukee Painting”, Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Group Exhibition

“New Aspects of Abstraction”, Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, Group Exhibition

1986 Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, Group Exhibitions (also 1984 and 1985)

“Emerging Artists Showcase,” Sheila Nussbaum Gallery, Millburn, New Jersey

1984 “ Women Painters Today,” Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin

1981 Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, Group Exhibition

“Milwaukee 1981” and “Milwaukee 1980”, Seuferer/Chosy Gallery, Madison, Wisconsin, Group Exhibitions

1978 Greenfield Community College, Greenfield, Massachusetts, Two Person Exhibition

1977 “Print Exhibition,” Boston Visual Artists Union, Group Exhibition

1976 Gallery 33, Concord, New Hampshire, Two Person Exhibition

SELECTED JURIED EXHIBITIONS

2019 “ Watercolor Wisconsin,” Charles A. Wustum Museum, Racine, Wisconsin (also 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2017)

2017 “Accumulations,” Sharon Lynn Wilson Center, Two Person Exhibition w ith Nirmal Raja

2015 “ Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors Exhibition,” Milwaukee, Wisconsin (also 1987, 1993, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2009)

1995 “Beloit and Vicinity Exhibition,” Beloit, Wisconsin (also, April 1982 & 1993)

1985 Wisconsin/Minnesota Interface, Cudahy Gallery of Wisconsin Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Minnesota Museum of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota

“14th Annual Union League Exhibition,” Chicago, Illinois

1984 “ Wisconsin Directions IV,” Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Wisconsin

1980 “1980 Wisconsin Biennale,” Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin

1978 “Regional Selections 1978,” Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire “Landscape Show,” Boston Visual Artists Union

1977 Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, (also 1976)

1976 “Patrons Choice Exhibition,” DeCordova Art Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts

1974 “Drawing ‘74,” Wheaton College, Massachusetts

1972 “12th Biennale,” Joslyn Museum, Omaha, Nebraska

1971 “9th Mid-Mississippi Valley Show,” Davenport Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa

SPECIAL PROJECTS

2015 “Set and Reset/Reset” animation projections for UWM Dance department Winter concert, NEA supported restaging of 1983 Trisha Brown choreographic work, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2013 “Sitelines collaborative studio research drawings” with UWM Art and Design graduate students, Kenilworth Square research space, 2006-2013, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2008 “Triptych,” dance concert and exhibition collaboration with Chris Burns, Music, and Luc Vanier, Dance, Peck School of the Arts, UWM, Kenilworth Square East, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2004 Visiting Artist and Juror, “No Big Heads” National Self-portrait Exhibition, University of Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska

2003 College Art Association Panel presenter, “Work Site/Sight” paper title for the “Meaning of Labor in contemporary Art,” panel session

1992 Guest Curator, “Present Tense” exhibition, UWM University Art Museum, Fine Arts Galleries, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin

Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin

Waterloo Art Museum, Waterloo, Iowa

Colby-Sawyer College, New London, New Hampshire

University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Business, Management Institute

ASQ, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

General Electric, Stratford, Connecticut

Monroe, Rifkin, Denver, Colorado

Miller Wisconsin Collection, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Heritage Insurance Company, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Dayton Hudson Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Prudential Insurance, Minneapolis, Minnesota

3M Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota

First National Bank Boston, Boston, Massachusetts

First Bank Systems, St. Paul, Minnesota

CUNA Mutual of Madison, Wisconsin

Nicolet Instruments Company, Madison, Wisconsin

TEACHING RECORD

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1978-2020

Colby-Sawyer College, New London, New Hampshire, 1972-1978

Black Hawk College, Moline, Illinois, 1970-1972, (part-time)

University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 1969-1970, Graduate Teaching Assistant

ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD

Chair, Department of Visual Art, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2001-2007 and 1985-1989

Associate Dean, School of Fine Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1994/95

Acting Dean, School of Fine Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1993/94

Associate Chair, Department of Art, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1980-1983

Selected Alumni

Bjorn Akerblom

William Andersen

Melanie Ariens

Liz Bachhuber

James Barany

Steve Burnham

Allison B. Cooke

Michael Davidson

Josiah Ellner

John Fatica

Leslie Fedorchuk

Brian Felten

Mariah Ferrari

Nina Ghanbarzadeh

Kevin Giese

Regan Golden Matthew Groshek

Kristin Haas

Sean Heiser Kathy Hofmann

Ariana Huggett

Marc Jacobson

Hai-Chi Jihn

Mutòpe J. Johnson

Nykoli Koslow

Alyssa Krause

Matthew Lee

Rebekah Linner

kathryn e. martin-meurer

Edmund Mathews

Tyler Meuninck

Maggie Michael

A. Bill Miller

Nick Naber

Chris Niver

Amy O’Neill

Melanie Pankau

Keith Pitts

Deidre Prosen

Nirmal Raja

Barbara Reinhart

Paula Schulze

Joe Steiner

Brennen Steines

Adam Stoner

Christine Style Corbett Toomsen

Emily Tripp Michael Ware

Sonji Yarbrough Hunt

Jenna Youngwood

“Having started her career here in 1978, Vansen blazed trails for many of us who have endeavored to follow in her footsteps. Her mentorship has been of incalculable value to her colleagues as well as to the hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students with whom she has worked.”

Bjorn Akerblom is a painter and interdisciplinary artist based in Nashville, Indiana, and Brooklyn, whose work attempts to explore the increased significance of applied aesthetics within the queer experience. Through studio processes which simulate the act of visual identity construction, they make abstract work exploring the intersections of influence by both chosen and inflicted social structures on personal presentation.

Bjorn Akerblom

William Andersen

William Andersen’s artwork and point of view have been primarily influenced by his travels between the US and Asia over the last three decades. During this time, he has watched as regions like the Middle East and East Asia have emerged as economic and cultural forces and is fascinated by the tightening global web of economics, resource use, migration, and cultural hybridization. Living and traveling within such diverse regions and cultures for much of his life has directed his creative outlook to the notions of displacement, globalization, and hybridity. Using traditional and new media approaches, his artwork often incorporates chinoiserie imagery, an interest ac quired early on amid his mother’s collection of blue and white china.

Andersen is currently the Chair of the Department of Art & Graphic Design at the American University of Kuwait. He was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship in Taiwan and China before moving to Kuwait in 2008.

M.F.A. 2000, School of Art Institute of Chicago B.F.A. 1992, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Hosed, 2018

Recycled garden hose, hose fittings

9’ x 13’ approx.

Melanie Ariens received her BFA from the UWM Milwaukee in 1992, and remains an active, regional, multi-media artist whose work focuses on the Great Lakes and freshwater issues. She creates installations, water shrines and fetish pieces, serving to inspire stewardship for our shared water, urging us all to celebrate and care for it. Her work has been exhibited regionally, and featured in podcasts. She serves on several committees both locally and nationally. She was the first artist to receive the River Hero Award by the River Network.

Melanie serves as Artist-in-Residence for Milwaukee Water Commons, which uses art as an engagement tool to develop water leadership deep in the city. She has produced public art, led community mural projects, and organized the annual We Are Water event, an evening inter-arts celebration of Milwaukee’s waters. Melanie has also worked on projects with MMSD, the City of Milwaukee and the Watermarks project.

B.F.A. 1992, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Melanie Ariens

Liz Bachhuber

Blauer Zylinder / Blue Cylinder, 2014 Polyurethane, branch segments, pvc-tubing, steel fasteners

23 1/2” x 43” x 7 1/2”

Photo credit: Claus Bach

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA Liz Bachhuber studied at UWM, (BFA 1976, MA 1979) and from 1979-84 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf on a Fulbright/DAAD grant (1983 Meisterschülerin). 1984 travel grant Kunstakademie Düsseldorf to Rome. 1983-84 grant to work Kunstfonds e.V. Bonn. 1988 Emerging Artist Award of the City of Düsseldorf. 1987-1989 National Studio Program at P.S.1. 1990-1991 NEA grant to work. 1992 guest professorship Kunstakademie Münster. 1993-2018 founding member Faculty of Art and Design, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. 2001 initiated the Englishlanguage, international MFA-Program „Public Art and New Artistic Strategies“ responsible until 2011. Liz Bachhuber spearheaded a long-running collaboration between Art and Environmental Engineering (2001-2019) with excursions to the Mexican/USA border at Tijuana/San Diego and Bangladesh (2019 documentary film “Handmade in Bangladesh”). 1980 to present commissions and exhibitions in the public realm and in solo and group exhibitions in galleries, museums, Kunstvereine and alternative spaces in Europe, the Americas and Asia. She lives and works in Weimar and Berlin.

liz-bachhuber.com

Meisterschülerin 1983, Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany M.A. 1979/B.F.A. 1976, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

James Barany

Visual Amalgamation

Through a compendium of visceral and interdisciplinary means; the larger collective of my studio practice embraces a continuum of psychological themes including empathy, emotion and memory of the human condition. Supportively, constructs of anastomosis, metacognition and consciousness are repeatedly incorporated to help support these underlying motifs. Throughout this multi-faceted work, time, image and even sound metamorphosize into a new visual contextualization.

Regardless of which form these investigations take, they collectively attempt to breakdown and reorganize moments that have been both experienced and capturedtaunting, and testing them to offer a deeper, more poetic examination of self. Through juxtaposition context is called to play in a subjective manner, distorting associations and challenging the echoes of memory. The tandem of awareness and consciousness are called to question, as the variable of changing moments repeatedly transitionimitating the continuum of our interwoven experience.

M.F.A. 1997, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 1992, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design

Steve Burnham earned a BFA in painting and drawing from UW-Milwaukee in 1993 and an MFA in painting from the University of Kansas in 1997. He has exhibited in France and nationally, in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, as well as in Milwaukee, where he lives and works – at Inova, the Portrait Society Gallery, Real Tinsel, St. Kate Arts Hotel, Dean Jensen, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Charles Allis Museum, Haggerty Museum, and Alverno College.

M.F.A. 1997, University of Kansas B.F.A. 1993, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Steve Burnham

Throughout her thirty-year teaching career, Allison B. Cooke taught myriad drawing and painting courses at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and full time in the Department of Art and Design housed within the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. For twelve consecutive summers, Allison served as the Director and Adjunct Professor for a study abroad program in collaboration with the Department of Art and Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence, Italy.

Allison works experimentally in painting, drawing, printmaking, and collage. She has exhibited widely in national and international venues. Her work resides in public collections as well as in private art collections in Germany, Japan, India, Ireland, and Italy.

In 2013, she was invited into a curated international artist’s project called The Drawing Box. Allison continues to exhibit drawings in traveling exhibitions across the globe.

M.F.A. 1988, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.S. in Art Ed. 1977, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Allison B. Cooke

Michael Davidson received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee 1985, and completed his MFA at S.U.N.Y. - Purchase in 1989. He has taught at UWMilwaukee and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, where he also served as Chair of Fine Arts. Additionally, Davidson has acted as a mentor at M.A.R.N (Milwaukee Artist Resource Network). His work has been exhibited in New York City and throughout Wisconsin.

M.F.A. 1989, SUNY- Purchase B.F.A. 1985, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Michael Davidson

Josiah Ellner is a Chicago-based artist currently pursuing his Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ellner was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but spent his formative years in Xi’an China. Growing up in a city of more than 10 million people with scarce green spaces and little to no wildlife, he has always felt a disconnect from the natural world. Despite these feelings of alienation, he has found himself strangely drawn to nature and a yearning to reconnect with it. From his personal experiences of encountering and engaging with nature, Ellner weaves together playful narratives that capture these fleeting moments of intimate connection. Through careful abstraction, he is able to heighten and fully portray the whimsical and awkward interactions that he has with the natural world.

M.F.A. candidate, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago B.F.A. 2019, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Josiah

John Fatica is an artist who lives in Shorewood, Wisconsin. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Detroit School of Architecture in 1969 an d practiced architecture until 1994, when he enrolled in the visual arts program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Peck School of the Arts in 2000, specializing in drawing and painting. As an adjunct professor and associate lecturer, he taught drawing from 1997 to 2002. His work has been exhibited widely, including the SECURA Fine Arts Exhibition at the Trout Museum of Art, the Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors Biennial at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Continuum 2013: In Retrospect Denis Sargent at UWM, Watercolor Wisconsin at the Wustum Museum of Art and Six Counties at the John Michael Kohler Art Center and other group or member shows in Wisconsin.

M.F.A. 2000, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B Arch. 1969, the University of Detroit-Mercy

Tethered, 2018

Book Art; mixed media

13” x 8” (closed)

13”x 16” (open)

An artist and educator who has been working in the genre of alternative processes and artists’ books for 30+ years. Fedorchuk earned a BFA from the University of Michigan and an MFA at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. In addition, she completed further graduate study in theology at St. Francis Seminary. Her written and visual work deals with issues of autobiography, memory, and place narratives. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally and has work in many private and public collections including the Milwaukee Public Library, The Tweed Museum of Art, Special Collections – UW Milwaukee, and the Museum of Modern Art. A Professor at the Milwaukee Institute of Design, she has developed and taught courses in the humanities, art history, writing, letterpress, book arts, and virtual worlds. Fedorchuk has been a part of the MIAD community since the early nineties – serving both on the faculty and as an academic dean.

M.F.A. 1987, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 1975, University of Michigan

Leslie Fedorchuk

Brian Felten is a Wisconsin born artist and Art Educator currently living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Brian earned his BFA in Art Education and Studio Art from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in 2016, and earned his MFA in Painting and Drawing at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2020. Brian explores the inter section of capturing the essence of an identity through portraiture and the expressive materiality of paint and mark making. He has worked as an Art Educator for various K-12 school districts, and has exhibited his work in the Allen Priebe Gallery, Thelma Gallery, and the Steinhibler Gallery.

M.F.A. 2020, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 2016, University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh

Brian Felten

Portrait

Mariah Ferrari is a painter based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2019. Ferrari’s work explores the sense of touch and its relation to color, surface, and physical presence. She brings the viewer’s focus to the concealed qualities of touch, bringing attention to the sensory event of being alive. Ferrari has been included in several publications including New American Paintings and Art Maze Magazine. She has exhibited locally and internationally, and has an upcoming solo exhibition with Marian Cramer Projects in Amsterdam in November of 2022.

B.F.A. 2019, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Mariah Ferrari

Olive of My Eye

2022

Nina Ghanbarzadeh

This sentence is written in two languages, 2020 Pen on paper 29” x 40”

Photo credit: James Prinz Photography

Nina Ghanbarzadeh is a visual artist who emigrated from Iran in 2001. She earned her BFA in painting, drawing and graphic design from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 2013 and completed a two-year AIR Program with Redline Milwaukee in 2015. In addition to her solo and group exhibitions, she is the winner of best in show in Wisconsin Biennial 2020. She is also the recipient of the Student Silver ADDY awards and Fredric R. Layton Foundations Scholarship. Nina launched ARTKee Educational Toys in early 2020, which produces SOFTwordsTM, kits that allow children to explore the shapes as images as well as text. She draws inspiration from cultural differences and the limitations of language. She finds beauty in the abstract marks that make up the symbols for language and explores the possibility of peace, happiness and togetherness through the universal language of art.

B.F.A. 2013, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Milwaukee River, 2021

pastel

Kevin Giese received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1992, and his Master of Fine Arts degree in 2007, both from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Currently Kevin is a Lecturer at the Peck School of the Arts UW-Milwaukee where he teaches courses in drawing, and manages the wood shop at Kenilworth Square East. A dedicated teacher, he has taught classes ranging from drawing to advanced woodworking. Giese also has exhibited his artworks throughout Wisconsin, as well as the Midwest in solo and group shows, including at the Dean Jensen Gallery, Lawrence University, Inova, Portrait Society Gallery, and Lynden Sculpture Garden. More information on Kevin’s career and artworks can be found at www.kevingiese.com.

M.F.A. 2007/M.A. 2005/B.F.A. 1992, University of WisconsinMilwaukee

Kevin Giese

Regan Golden

Loses

Regan Golden’s images and essays explore how relationships within nature evolve overtime. Golden’s large-scale collages and intricate drawings are inspired by the persistent plants thriving in the urban prairies and forests across the Twin Cities. Her artwork has been exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally, including Gallery 44: Centre for Contemporary Photography in Toronto, Gallery 400 in Chicago, the Cue Foundation in New York City, and the Soo Visual Art Center in Minneapolis. Golden’s first solo museum show is on view from September 2022January 2023 at the Flaten Art Museum at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.

She has received grants and fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Regan Golden is an Assistant Professor in Fine Arts at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design.

M.F.A. 2006/M.A. 2004, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.A. 2000, Grinnell College

i

Photo credit: mgroshek

Matthew Groshek is an associate professor of graphic design at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. In a twenty-five-year career in higher education, including faculty and curatorial positions at Herron School of Art at Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis, and the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, and Stevens Point, he has taught in the fields of graphic design and communication, interpretive design, and exhibition development and design. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards recognizing his research, art, design, and community centered projects.

Groshek is the founder and principal of Education Design Link (EDL), an interpretive design firm operating since 1990. Through EDL he has completed projects for numerous cultural and educational institutions and museums.

Groshek is also the founder and director of Sedgemeadow Cultural Residency, located on his forty-acre family farmstead, which supports scholars and artists, who explore the intersections of humans and the natural environment.

M.F.A. 1986, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 1982, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Matthew Groshek

Kristin Haas

Blue Sky

Kristin Haas was awarded an MFA Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation upon graduating from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 2010. The grant helped her move into a new studio in Riverwest, where she hosted artist get-togethers and curated pop up shows; she won an honorable mention award for best new space in the Riverwest Artist Association’s Annual Artwalk. During that time, Kristin exhibited her work nationally and won 2nd Place Prize in Columbia City Gallery’s Unwrapped Exhibition in Seattle Washington. Kristin was a Finalist for the Mary L Nohl Emerging Artist Fellowship.

Kristin relocated to Illinois where she currently resides with her husband and daughter. She has held numerous arts administrative and instructor positions including, exhibitions director, curator, grant writer and fundraiser, art instructor, and executive director at a nonprofit art center. Kristin is currently a lecturer in the Art and Design department at Oakton Community College.

M.F.A. 2010/ M.A. 2009, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.A. 2016, Northeastern Illinois University

Sean Heiser is a Malaysian-born artist based in Knoxville, TN, where he is an MFA candidate at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee in 2017. His work has been published in New American Paintings, and he is currently represented in Milwaukee by The Alice Wilds.

M.F.A. candidate, University of Tennessee-Knoxville B.F.A. 2017, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Sean Heiser

Landscape has been the focus of Kathy Hofmann’s painting for more than 25 years, with the last decade inspired by the landscape of the Driftless region near her home in western Dane county.

Many of Hofmann’s paintings are imbued with light and consist of a solitary subject in an evanescent scene. She is keenly aware of changes in light, environment, season, natural processes, and time on the subjects she paints. Her paintings, often of quiet and diminutive scenes of trees, fields, and grazing animals in atmospheric and light-filled spaces, weave together her personal experience of place, artistic vision, and the larger questions of the dichotomy of man and nature.

Kathy Hofmann earned a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her work is represented by the Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee, has been featured in numerous museum and gallery exhibits, and is held in private and corporate collections.

M.F.A. 1997, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 1989, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design

Kathy Hofmann

I grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and moved to Chicago to study at the School of the Art Institute where I received a BFA in painting and drawing. Because of family, I moved to Madison eventually coming to Milwaukee to attend graduate school at UWM where Leslie Vansen was my major professor. I’ve been here ever since, and the city over time has become my subject. Beginning with observational explorations in the homes of people I knew, I then received commissions to paint inside the homes of strangers. A commission to paint a historic Milwaukee building turned into a project to paint Milwaukee public schools leading me to focus on Milwaukee’s historic architecture. Recently, I held an artist residency at the Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Museums and with the onset of the pandemic, my work has become more focused on my own life and my neighborhood.

M.F.A. 1994, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 1987, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Ariana

View

Paul’s

Post No.8 ,2021 Oil on wood 25 5/8” x 3 1/2”

A Wisconsin native, I went to UW-Milwaukee for my BFA. After graduating, I took classes in Reims, France, rode a scooter around the country and worked in a champagne bottle factory. Back in Milwaukee, I painted and played sax in a polka band, eventually returning to UWM for graduate study. I’ve been in Indianapolis since 1990, a professor at the Herron School of Art and Design until retiring January 2021.

I’ve been drawn to the landscape since boyhood and consistently veered between abstraction and representation. A current series of non-objective wood ‘posts’ stands at the non-objective end of this continuum. I invariably push for tangible space, musical structure, and friction between the represented subject and the paintings’ physical and abstract form. Horizontality is important. Tours of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings when I was a boy stayed with me, as did the view of Lake Michigan from the overlooking bluffs.

M.F.A. 1985/B.F.A. 1976, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Marc Jacobson

Love Entwined #1, #2, #4, #5, #6, 2022

Silver, fine silver, mixed media

3” x 3” x 2”(smallest)5” x 15” x 2”(largest)

A native of Taiwan, Hai-Chi Jihn earned her BA in Textile & Clothing Design from Fu Jen University in Taiwan, 1982 and her MFA in Metalsmithing from UW-Milwaukee, 1991. From 1994 to 2016, She has been teaching as Adjunct at Cardinal Stritch University, UW-Milwaukee, The School of Chicago Institute of Art, Lawrence University, Taiwan Fu-Jen University, and Tainan National University of Arts. She has exhibited in national and international venues including the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, National Metal Museum in Memphis, Madison Contemporary of Art Center, Racine Art Museum, and Taiwan National Kaohsiung Museum of Arts. Her work is in the permanent collections of Racine Art Museum, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Kohler Company, Alverno College and private collections. Hai-Chi is also a recipient of the Milwaukee Individual Fellowship, Sacagawea Artist Award, Artist/Industry Residency Program at Kohler Arts Center, and Mary Nohl Travel Fund.

M.F.A. 1991, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.A. 1982, Fu Jen University in Taiwan

Hai-Chi Jihn

Mutópe’s educational background includes a MFA degree from the UW-Milwaukee, Peck School of the Arts, a BFA degree from the UW-Whitewater –Art &Design Department. Mutópe is a Milwaukee based visual artist, who’s body of work is best known for themes directly related to celebrating African-American History and Culture. Works often poetically created in blue cast. Mutope’s fascination with indigo pigment connects centuries of symbolic meaning, a type of iconic visual code recognized within the African-American visual arts vernacular.

Johnson’s’ work is widely collected and have been included in exhibitions at the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Dave Project Gallery permanent collection, the Trout Museum, UMASS Augusta Savage Art Gallery, Northwestern Mutual Foundation Giving Gallery, MSOE’s Kern Center, the Charles Allis Fine Arts Museum, Charles A. Wustum Fine Arts Museum, the Overture Center for the Arts, the Juxtaposition Gallery Minneapolis, MN, Susan Woodson’s Gallery Chicago, and a long list of others.

M.F.A. 2014, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 1978, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Nykoli Koslow is a visual artist working in the realm of painting, drawing, installation and VR. Fusing abstraction with figuration, Nykoli anchors the innate Trans* experience into a queer mythic cosmology. Personal experience, reinterpretations of familial cultural histories, mythology, religion, mysticism, and sci-fi spill into his re-imagined worlds.

Nykoli was selected for the year long 2021-2022 Pfister Artist-In-Residence program. His show, Queer Mythologies, was at The Gallery Space in Saint Kate Arts Hotel, 2022. You can see one of his murals in Wauwatosa, WI, selected by wallpaper city and commissioned by Trip Savvy, NY, 2019. Nykoli was one of seven finalist for the Mary L. Nohl grant, 2019. Nykoli has been a guest speaker for MIAD, UW-Milwaukee, and No Studios. He currently works out of his studio in Var West, Milwaukee and is represented by Var Gallery.

B.F.A. 2013, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Nykoli

Alyssa

Alyssa Krause is a painter living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Painting & Drawing at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee in 2019. Krause’s work focuses around generating a response of familiarity in an unfamiliar form as a way to question the parameters of perception. Through predetermined rules set up before making a painting, Krause creates a border between herself and the painting. Her work is driven by the desire to understand the core of perception in painting—it’s always an alteration, an assumption, a second landing. Krause’s work has been shown locally in Milwaukee and across the Midwest. She is represented by Tappan Collective LA and LeBennett.

B.F.A. 2019, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Matthew Lee is a Wisconsin born oil painter and draftsmen. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in 2014. Lee’s work is rooted in his experiences with large scientific devices as a member of the United States Antarctic Program where he worked in science support from 20082010. This included a 13 month stay at the Geographic South Pole for Antarctic winter where he learned field medicine and taught watercolor classes to scientists and support personnel. The landscapes produced since his involvement in Antarctica feature large telescopes, neutrino detectors, and other scientific mechanisms. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and includes shows in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and New York.

M.F.A. 2014/B.F.A. 2007, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Matthew

Una

Rebekah Linner

Rebekah Linner received her BFA in 2019 from UW-Milwaukee and is currently located in Aurora, IL. Linner has taken part in various group shows, including Kenilworth Open Studios at Kenilworth Gallery, Milwaukee, WI. Linner was also honored to be a finalist for the Grilled Cheese Grant and was published in the Furrow Magazine.

In her paintings, Linner uses process as a metaphor for the experience of being a woman. Her process includes projecting curated images of women onto a canvas, overlapping them, disjointing them, and simplifying parts of them. Through the layering of paint, fabric, and stitching, she explores ideas of womanness. Her goal through these paintings is to investigate the complexities of the experience of being a woman today.

B.F.A. 2019, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

kathryn e. martin-meurer

kathryn e. martin-meurer (katie) is an alum of both MIAD, where she did her undergrad, and The Peck School of the Arts, where she received her MA and MFA.

katie’s love is sculpture and teaching sculpture, which she has been doing at UWM for the past 15 years. She has been awarded a UWM Campus Outstanding Teacher Award, A Distinguished Community Engaged Faculty of the Year Award, and most recently, a nomination as The 2022 Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year.

She has exhibited widely with solo exhibitions at the Northern Arizona University Art Museum, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Museum of Wisconsin Art, and The John Michael Kohler Art Center. Her work is included in numerous private and corporate collections, and as a public artist has been awarded several large-scale public art commissions including a piece along the Hank Aaron State Trail, an exterior work on UW-Madison’s campus, and an interior work for the Milwaukee’s East Side Public Library.

M.F.A. 2007/M.A. 2005, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 2001, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design

Edmund Mathews is an international artist who has been living and working in Wuhan, China for the past seven years. His paintings have been exhibited throughout China and the United States, and while in China he has exhibited work at the Youpin Art Gallery, Bubble Lab, and the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts in Xi’an City, China. Edmund has also given lectures and gallery talks at various universities and galleries throughout the mainland of China.

His current work focuses on cross-cultural experiences as a transitory immigrant and primarily addresses personal accounts and journeys while living in China.

Edmund is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and received his MFA in Drawing and Painting graduating with Honors. Since 2015, he has been teaching full-time as a Visiting Professor at the Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, China in both the School of Arts and Design and the School of Industrial Design. M.F.A. 2015/ B.F.A. 2010/ B.F.A. 1991, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Edmund Mathews

Tyler Meuninck

Tyler Meuninck resides in Milwaukee WI. He attended the Herron School of Art and Design, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts, and further received a Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Tyler’s work focuses on Northern Midwest industrial cities known for their laborious workmanship. Draw ings and paintings are created through a combination of traditional practices and innovative methods relative to modernist and contemporary painting tropes. The work stems from the lake effect and atmospheric conditions around Lake Michigan along with their combined residual effects on todays’ inner city landscape.

M.F.A. 2014, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.A. 2002, Herron School of Art and Design

Maggie Michael (born, Milwaukee, WI) lives and works in Washington, DC. Her work has been exhibited across the US and internationally. Recent exhibitions include: “Fields and Formations, A Survey of Mid-Atlantic Abstraction,” The Delaware Contemporary, DE (2021) and American University Museum, WDC (2022), “One on One: Maggie Michael/Arthur Dove, Depth of Field,” The Phillips Collection, WDC (2019). Museum and public collections include the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; National Museum of Women in the Arts; Smithsonian American Art Museum; The Phillips Collection; US Art in Embassies Collection in Romania and Barbados. Artist residencies and awards include the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Canada; Cetate Arts Danube, Romania; the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, the Trawick Contemporary Art Award, and Artist Fellowship Grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, funded in part by the NEA.

B.F.A. 1996, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Maggie Michael

Image, aluminum

graphite, colored

ink on paper

image

A. Bill Miller is an Associate Professor of Art and Design at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He earned his MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has exhibited or screened his work nationally and internationally. In 2013, TRANSFER Gallery, held the first solo exhibition of his work. Bill also performs with live audio/visuals in traditional gallery exhibitions as well as Art and Music Festivals including VIA Pittsburgh in 2011, DINCA Fest Chicago in 2013, Slingshot Athens GA in 2014, and in ongoing collaboration for Milwaukee Psych Fest.

M.F.A. 2008/M.A. 2007, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 2002, University of Wisconsin-Stout

(meander), 2021

graphite

watercolor paper

Nick Naber’s (b. 1986, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) work draws on the visual language of penitentiaries, New York City corporate landscape, and Brutalist/Modernist architecture, the work emerges from a myriad background of sources to create dystopic visions of imagined cities. His works organize themselves in the linear likeness of maps and Modernist Utopian cities, creating a hierarchy of structures intersecting and organizing space.

Nick received his MFA in painting and drawing from Pratt Institute (2012) and his BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2010). He has had four recent solo exhibitions along with group exhibitions at multiple venues. Nick’s work has been reviewed by Painting is Dead for his solo exhibition ‘Untitled (series)’ at The Java Project (2018). Nick is also the Co-Founder/East Coast Editor and Contributor at The Coastal Post.

M.F.A. 2012, Pratt Institute B.F.A. 2010, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Nick Naber

I received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee where I was fortunate to study with Leslie Vansen. Throughout my studies, I focused on printmaking. I’ve always favored the graphic arts; first through comic books, then great illustrators like Sidney Paget and Rockwell Kent. In Chicago, I was exposed to the fine art print tradition at the Art Institute of Chicago’s print study center, and for 19 years I’ve worked with the print collection at the Milwaukee Art Museum as a conservator. In addition to the occasional print, I also embroider in the redwork tradition with the exception that I use black thread, also known as black redwork. Traditional redwork has a clean graphic quality to which I’m drawn and in emphasizing process, it recalls printmaking where a spontaneous drawing is translated, slowed and considered.

M.A. 1992, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 1987, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Chris Niver

Representational figure painter Amy O’Neill is interested in the new ways we use technology to communicate, forge connections, and show intimacy within shared spaces. Since March of 2020, there has been little else that has occupied our collective consciousness more than the importance of both community and isolation. We have all experienced how difficult it is to navigate the simultaneous occupation of multiple, and often antithetical, concepts. The spacial shift people make when toggling between multiple communities is akin to the blush of an octopus as it adapts to a new environment. This new body of work explores what it looks like to attempt simultaneous connectivity in multiple spaces, examining the moment someone shifts between a shared public space and an interior psychic space. O’Neill received her BFA in 1998 and her MFA in 2004 from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She lives in Milwaukee.

M.F.A. 2004/B.F.A. 1998, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Amy O’Neill

Melanie Pankau received her BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1999, her MFA from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 2011 as well as studied at the Bauhaus Universtät in Weimar, Germany. Pankau’s work has been shown in regional and national exhibitions at venues including: McCormick Gallery, Chicago, IL; Thomas Barry Fine Arts, Minneapolis, MN; Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN; South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN; Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA; and art fairs Art Miami, FL, and EXPO Chicago, IL. She has participated in several artist residency programs including the Vermont Studio Center, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Pankau is a recipient of a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Community Arts Assistance Program Grant and two Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants. Her work is represented by McCormick Gallery in Chicago.

M.F.A. 2011, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 1999, Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Melanie Pankau

2020

panel

credit: Rik Sferra

Blue Pigment

I’m a 70s kid born and raised in South Texas. There wasn’t much aesthetic beauty among the farmland, mesquite trees, and chemical plants. So, I learned to see beauty in the world around me and the banal. My high school didn’t have an art program, the closest equivalent was theater arts. This rhizomatic shift into theatre set the path of my artistic journey into motion. I went on to receive a BFA in Theatre, an MFA in Stage Design, and a 20-plus year professional career as a professor and freelance scenic and costume designer. But throughout those 20-plus years, the desire to be a working studio artist was in the back of my mind. In 2018 I walked away from my professorship and went back to school to receive an MFA in painting and drawing. So here I am... in the infancy of my studio art career looking to create work that looks for beauty in the unexpected, visualizes thoughts, fights for social equity and awareness, pulls on the threads of assumed definitions, and generally has fun seeing where the materials lead me.

M.F.A. 2021, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee M.F.A. 2001, Northwestern University B.F.A. 1998, Sam Houston State University

The work I create is generated by my desire to make what often remains hidden, (in terms of one’s feelings and thoughts) rise to the surface and be revealed. Although this does connect to my practice as a psychotherapist, I had been doing this kind of work long before I decided to study psychology. The human psyche and behavior has always fascinated me. I tend to focus upon themes of human folly that primarily manifest in the form of figurative paintings and mixed media. I currently live and work in Milwaukee and was born in Canada where I obtained my BFA. I then continued my studies at UWM and went on to obtain an MFA. There, I taught a range of classes as well as at other institutions. Some of the highlights of my artistic career have been a scholarship to Skowhegan as well as a Milwaukee Emerging artist grant.

M.F.A. 1995, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A.1989University of Manitoba in Canada

Deidre

Nirmal Raja

Wrapping Air in Cloth, 2019

Found fabric and fabric sculpting medium varied sizes of sculptures on approximately 6’ x 6’ plinth

Nirmal Raja is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Milwaukee, She had lived in India, South Korea, and Hong Kong before immigrating to the United States thirty years ago. She holds a BA in English Literature from St. Francis College in Hyderabad, India; a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She has participated in solo and group shows in the Midwest, nationally, and internationally. She is the recipient of several awards including “Graduate of The Decade” from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Raja received the Mary L. Nohl Fellowship for individual artists for the year 2020 and the Mildred L. Harpole Artists of the Year 2022 award from the Milwaukee Arts Board. She collaborates with other artists and strongly believes in investing energy into her immediate community while also considering the global. She is a mentor for the Milwaukee Artists Resource Network. Periodically, she curates exhibitions that bring people from different cultures and backgrounds together.

M.F.A. 2012, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 2008, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design B.A. 1987, St. Francis College in Hyderabad, India

Barbara Reinhart is Professor Emerita of Art at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee at Waukesha where she taught from 1996 until 2018. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her BA from Cornell College of Iowa. Her work in a variety of media explores aspects of the human figure as well as relationships between humans and with other forms of nature. One of her ceramic sculptures was included in 500 Figures in Clay published by Lark Books. Her graphic memoir, A Loose Ship Road Trip, completed in 2019, is available as a free downloadable pdf through compositeclay.com. She exhibited recent work in a solo show, “Ambivalent Contact”, at the Bliss Gallery at Carroll University in Waukesha in September, 2021. Her work in public art collections include the Waukesha Public Library and Carroll University. She shares her home and studio with Jeff Noska in Dousman, Wisconsin.

M.F.A. 1988, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.A. 1976, Cornell College of Iowa.

Barbara Reinhart

Paula Schulze is a visual artist living in Shorewood, Wisconsin. She works primarily in drawing and printmaking and has also created installations and large-scale temporary public art. Her work focuses on geometry and pattern and their way of organizing space, and it demonstrates a concern for a meditative quality and a sense of craft. Paula has a BA in anthropology and Ibero-American studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an MFA in printmaking from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She exhibits her work regularly and has participated in artist residencies in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Italy, and Spain.

M.F.A. 1992, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.A. 1984, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Joe Steiner earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee in 2018. He is currently living in and is working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born and raised in Southern Idaho, Steiner creates abstract paintings that explore themes of queerness and isolation, both geographically and socially. His work often includes the figure, utilizing it as a framework to approach these autobiographic subjects.

B.F.A. 2018, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Good Night Kiss

Brennen Steines is an artist working with painting, video, and sculpture. He received a Master’s of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University School of Art and received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He is the recipient of Yale University’s CCAM Blended Reality Studio Fellowship and received the Yale School of Art’s Elizabeth Canfield Hicks award for outstanding achievement in painting from nature. He also attended the Yale Norfolk School of Art through the support of the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship in 2017 and was a Plum Blossom Initiative–Bridge Work artist in residence in 2018. Recent Exhibitions include Vibrant Matters at Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY; Vibrant Matters MFA Thesis Exhibition at Green Hall Gallery, New Haven, CT; 10268#, at Green Gallery, New Haven, CT; Vestiges at The Alice Wilds, Milwaukee, WI; Within and Against at Galerie Kenilworth, Milwaukee, WI.

M.F.A. 2022, Yale University School of Art B.F.A. 2018, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

The Healing of

Adam Stoner (b. 1989) received his Master of Fine Arts in Intermedia Studies from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2019, and his BA in Studio Art and Theater from Williams College in 2011. Stoner makes paintings, drawings, and video installations that visualize the intimate connections between architecture and our memories. How are we mutually inhabited by the very places we inhabit? If we build structures, do they also build us? Stoner is the recipient of UWM’s Chancellor’s Graduate Student Award, Layton Fellowship, and Williams College’s Gilbert W. Gabriel Prize in Theater. Originally trained in scenic design, Adam’s research frequently explores the language of space, the latent agency of materials, and the architectures— visible or invisible— which resonate endlessly in our daydreams. Adam lives and works in Milwaukee; he teaches drawing at UWM’s Peck School of the Arts.

M.F.A. 2019, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.A. 2011, Williams College

Adam Stoner

Christine Style

Birdgirl Contemplates

Christine Style has an MFA in printmaking from the UW-Milwaukee and a BS in Art from UW-Madison. She taught printmaking, drawing and design at UW-Green Bay for 32 years and retired the end of 2018 with professor emerita status. Style maintains a printmaking studio in Green Bay, primarily focusing on woodcuts and other relief processes, monotypes and books. Her work has been included in numerous regional, national and international exhibitions. She created a print for the Vox Popoli Devil’s Dictionary Exchange Portfolio and participated in all four of the Really Big Print relief print events and exhibits. In 2020, Christine Style Retrospective: A Passion for Prints & Drawings was at the UWGreen Bay Lawton Gallery. An exhibit catalog is available at Blurb.com. Style is currently the curator for a print exhibit at The Hardy Gallery, Ephraim, WI, and is represented in The Creative Place: History of Wisconsin Art.

M.F.A. 1986, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

B.S. in Art 1974, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Along the Madison River,

A multidisciplinary artist, designer and educator, Toomsen’s career spans architecture, published freelance illustrations, and exhibitions utilizing drawing, painting, printmaking and photography.

His studio practice is rooted in the act of looking –particularly at photographs – as a mode of apprehending the world, and examines the co-evolution of photography, tourism and the American west in consideration of our contemporary visual culture. Currently, his practice has evolved to address historical contexts and events of the American west in search of finding personal connections to, and make meaning of, these places and their histories.

Toomsen earned his Associate degree in Architecture from the Des Moines Area Community College, his BFA in Illustration from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) and received his MFA in Intermedia Art from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. He has taught a wide range of classes at MIAD and currently serves as the college’s Director of Youth + Community Programs.

M.F.A. 2014, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.F.A. 2004, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design

Corbett Toomsen

To Know Her

Photo

Love

Born in Lansing, Michigan. Tripp received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, in Painting and Drawing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Peck School of the Arts in 2018. Since, she has participated in various group shows such as, We Might Have Been Born Yesterday, But We Stayed Up All Night at Between Two Galleries, Within and Against, Brennen Steines and Emily Tripp at Galerie Kenilworth, Crash the Gate, at Things 4 Dreams in La Crosse, WI. Tripp moved to Brooklyn, NY, in 2020, where she currently works as a painter. Tripp’s paintings wholeheartedly explore the physical characteristics of oil paint. Through layering and collaging of shapes, colors, and phenomenons of light, Tripp collages visual images with the motion of painting. The paintings are often spacious, wonky, light emitting, and curiously developed in such a way that they aid each viewer to encourage discovery. “My intention is for each set of eyes to exit the painting, inspired by the great abyss.”

B.F.A. 2019, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Emily Tripp

Michael Lagerman

Michael Ware was born in Montpelier Vermont and has lived in many different regions of the United States throughout his life. He earned his Master of Fine Art from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in 2015. Prior to that he traveled extensively throughout North America. Those travels are the inspiration for his abstract sculptures that reference both the landscapes and the geological forces that created them. Michael has shown his work both regionally and nationally. His work is in many collections throughout the country including Rhode Island School of Art and Bradley University.

M.F.A. 2015/B.F.A. 2012, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Michael

Sonji Yarbrough Hunt

Micro Farm Study V, 2013 Acrylic on canvas, dyed muslin, peltex, fusible web, poly/cotton thread, cotton embroidery floss, metal grommets 32“ x 25“

Sonji Yarbrough Hunt has made things, makes things and will make things.

M.F.A. 1989/B.F.A. 1986, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Jenna Youngwood is a contemporary American painter and illustrator. Combining elements of landscape, fantasy, and their native Wisconsin flora, Youngwood’s paintings both celebrate and question the line between drawing and painting. Utilizing intricate linework and extremely saturated colors, Youngwood takes influence from nightscapes, cars, plants, and how we interact with nature today. As a result, their paintings often walk the line between representation and abstraction. Born in 1993, Youngwood received their BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2016 and has been exhibiting both locally and nationally. They are represented by The Alice Wilds and had their first solo show with the gallery in 2019. Youngwood lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

B.F.A. 2016, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Jenna Youngwood

West End Girl, 2020 Acrylic on cotton 30“ x 25”

Photo credit: Daniel McCullough