“Secret Sculpture Garden” opens at Milwaukee Hilton

Joel Pfeiffer’s steel and glass “Walk of Wonder” is inaugural exhibit

Milwaukee’s newest art venue, the Hilton Milwaukee City Center hotel, inaugurated a sculpture garden with a gala opening last night. The “secret” must refer to how hard the garden is to find without asking (if you haven’t been there before.) It certainly isn’t being kept a secret. The publicity for the show brought out a host of visitors. I arrived early and it was already crowded.

Perhaps the secret is why it took so long for the Hilton to capitalize on such a wonderful space to showcase sculpture.

The monumental steel and glass works by Hartland sculptor Joel Pfeiffer are perfectly suited to the formal garden. Rigorously geometric polished steel forms are accented with similarly geometric glass. For me, the “Walk of Wonder” in the show title was most evoked when the bright evening sun shone through the swirling glass patterns.

Pfeiffer is not new to sculpture on a monumental scale. His 9’x38’ ceramic “peace mural” hangs in the D concourse of Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport. That fruit of an international goodwill “clay stomp” involving thousands of people and 6 tons of clay has a twin in St. Petersburg, Russia. The auspicious year of its creation was 1989.

Long known for his ceramic art and over 80 of his collaborative clay stomps, Pfeiffer has more recently turned to glass making. All of the sculptures in the “Walk of Wonder” were made within the past three years, he told me.

Joel Pfeiffer

I hope this will be the first of so many sculpture shows at the Hilton that it won’t feel like a “secret” garden for long.

Forward 2016: A gallery walk & talk at Charles Allis

You are invited!

Please join me at the Charles Allis Art Museum this Saturday, 3-5 pm, for a walk and talk with eight of the artists in Forward 2016: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now.

Inverse, from Lynden Sculpture Garden

The participating artists are Lois Bielefeld, Kevin Giese, Pat Hidson, Jeanne Nikolai Olivieri, Sara Risley, Jason Van Roo, Sara Willadsen and myself.

I will be talking about the two photographs reproduced here. Inverse (above) is from my 2015 artist residency at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. HL2016 no. 3 (below) is from an on-going series about New York's High Line Park. Come hear more about each of those projects.

HL2016 - 3, from The High Line: An Abstract Nature

The exhibit, which was juried by Susan Barnett and Brent Budsberg, has been on display since October 27, 2016 and runs through February 19, 2017. 

There is a discounted admission fee for this special event:
$3 Members, Students w/ ID and Seniors | $5 General Admission.

The Charles Allis is at 1801 N Prospect Avenue in Milwaukee. More information available on the museum website.

A poem/prayer for the New Year

Prayer for this House

by Louis Untermeyer

May nothing evil cross this door
and may ill fortune never pry
about these walls may the roar and rain go by

By faith made strong these rafters will
withstand the battering of the storm.
Though all the world grow chill will keep us warm.

May peace walk softly through these rooms,
touching our lips with holy wine
until every casual corner blooms into a shrine

With laughter drown the raucous shout
and though the sheltering walls are thin
may they be strong to keep hate out and hold love in.

Images from Casa Sophia, Managua, Nicaragua, site of my latest artist residency.  

FORWARD opens at the Charles Allis Art Museum

Inverse, from the Lynden Sculpture Garden Series

I am honored to announce that two of my images have been included in FORWARD: A survey of Wisconsin Art Now at the Charles Allis Art Museum. The exhibition, which opened this evening, was juried by Susan Barnett and Brent Budsberg. The show includes 58 works in a diverse range of media and is particularly strong on painting and photography.

HL2016-3, from the High Line Series

FORWARD runs through Feb. 19, 2017 so there is plenty of time to see it. The Charles Allis is located at 1801 N. Prospect Ave. in Milwaukee. For more information go to their website.

Notebaert Nature Museum a great place for art

Canada warbler

I was pleased to discover the photographs of Art Fox at the Notebaert Nature Museum. Lusciously printed full color photographs depicted birds far larger than life-size. The birds were beautiful. They also were dead.

Baltimore oriole

Dark-eyed junco

Fox collected the dead birds from sidewalks around Chicago's skyscrapers. His poignant story is recounted on wall panels:

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"Each spring and fall, in the safety of darkness, migratory birds journey for thousands of miles. Many travel astounding distances between Northern Canada and South America. They follow routes called flyways. The Mississippi Flyway follows our waterways and passes right over Chicago. Sadly, every year, in one square mile of downtown Chicago, thousands strike our lighted shiny buildings and die. Across North America billions die."

Installation view

Yellow-shafted flicker

The exhibit, entitled Broken Journey, was just one of several that are currently on view at the Notebaert. While I had been to this lovely gem of a museum in Chicago's Lincoln Park to see art exhibits on previous occasions, I was surprised at how many I found this time. It seemed like every time I turned a corner I found another art display.

I had come to the Notebaert on the recommendation of someone who had seen a particular art exhibit, one that featured chocolate. Unfortunately, I was too late for the chocolate. 

The exhibit had changed. Going up in its place was a series of woodcut prints, also of birds, by Catherine Game.

Her "Red-tailed Hawk" appealed to me in particular for its powerful composition and unusual perspective.

Photographer David Mayhew specializes in chasing extreme weather conditions and his photographs demonstrate the dramatic nature of his pursuits (above and below.)

Fields of Glory

Yet another photographer rounds out the list of current exhibitors at Notebaert. David Shea hails from New York.

Shea's work, called Plume, is decidedly more political than the others. He "traces the journey of coal from mines in West Virginia to power plants in southeastern Ohio." According to the wall text he intends to "record the impact of the power plants on the environment and the people living nearby."

Bill Jones Camping on the Ohio

While you're there to see all the interesting artworks, be sure to also check out the museum's other displays and collections. These include the ever-popular butterflies:

Some dead.

And some still fluttering around.

Black Cat Alley opens Sunday - sneak preview

If you haven't yet heard of Black Cat Alley it is Milwaukee's newest claim to art world fame and in fact a huge step forward towards joining other cities with dynamic public art scenes. The formerly neglected, decrepit alley is across Kenilworth Street from the UWM Kenilworth Studios Building, which is not a coincidence as the name Black Cat refers to the UWM mascot, the Panther.

The transformation that is happening is a well-conceived (and apparently well-funded) program of mural painting. Muralists from all over the world have come to Milwaukee to participate. Some local artists have been invited as well--happy to see that! The artist on the cherry picker above cheerfully introduced herself as Bunnie Reiss from LA.

The most prominent mural is this one, entitled "Glitch Frog," which is actually not in the alley but on the side of the building facing Kenilworth (and not visible from the alley itself--I had to ask someone where it was!) The Black Cat Alley website identifies the painter as "European artist MTO."

There is an official opening for Black Cat Alley this Sunday, Sept. 18 from 10-5 pm, which coincides with Doors Open Milwaukee. There will be a brief ribbon-cutting and presentation at 2 pm.

Although some murals are finished, others are clearly works in progress. I suspect that will still be true on Sunday, although I saw a couple artists hard at work when I stopped by late in the day yesterday. It will be interesting to see the progress being made. I also suspect that mural-making will not cease just because there is an opening day. There is plenty of wall space left to fill!

Some are huge, like Glitch Frog, and others are rather small, like this very detailed one.

I didn't notice any identifying information, or signatures (although I might have missed that detail), so I can't tell you who made these examples.

There's been a decent amount of publicity (appropriately) so I expect a nice crowd on Sunday, especially if the weather is good. I know I'll be there. Hope to see you, too.

Black Cat Alley is in the center of the block between Prospect and Farwell, Kenilworth and Ivanhoe.

A “peculiar curiosity” lurks in the Lynden Sculpture Garden’s back woods

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What if the remains of slave quarters were suddenly discovered hidden in the woods behind the smoothly contoured landscape and monumental artworks of the sculpture park? That’s just one of many questions that might be raised by “Eliza’s Peculiar Cabinet of Curiosities,” which can in fact be found in the backwoods of the property.

Because of its semi-hidden location and—from a distance—humble character, the temporary installation by Chicago artist Fo Wilson could easily be missed or even dismissed. That is, until you walk right up to it. That’s when it become totally engaging.

Because I was out of town at the time I missed the opening, which was back in June. I was glad to finally catch up with this new feature of the Garden. The fact that the piece was located “out back” on property is significant. After all, maintaining its “natural” environment for the education of its visitors and patrons is part of the Lynden Sculpture Garden mission.

A circular swath of meadow had to be cleared for the installation. While not unprecedented—David Robbins’ “Open-air Writing Desk” (detail above) also is located in the “wilderness” of the back section—it is sufficiently rare that it adds depth to a sculpture that has no lack of meaning or symbolism.

The cabin is intriguing enough in itself. Sections of wall are opened up to reveal the interior and a ladder to the sky emerges from the roof. The exterior stud walls double as shelving for some of the “curiosities” indicated in the title.

The inside is decorated with many more objects, artifacts and images. They are arranged carefully, with almost obsessive neatness. The references to slave quarters and slavery is overt. But there is so much more than that as well. Here are a few thing that caught my attention.

Make sure you mosey on over to the far corner of the cabin and look down into the pail that sits there, surrounded by turtle shells.

The ceiling is worth a glance upwards.

Don’t miss the tiny figure of Thomas Jefferson being ladled up for our amusement—or derision.

My favorite moment in the cabin was when I noticed this intensely hued caterpillar casually worming its way along a bookshelf. A reminder, if I needed one, that nature is more than a setting for an outdoor sculpture like this one.

A distinct but related body of work by Wilson is on display in the Lynden gallery. Wilson alters postcards that depict stereotypes of the “happy servant” with the stated intention of  “restoring their dignity.”

While I was there I couldn’t help but notice a few changes around the grounds since I was last there. (Disclosure: I was artist-in-residence in 2015.)

The Brementown Musicians have been outfitted with colorful new duds.

It was a pleasure to see Marta Pan’s “Floating Sculpture No. 3” back in the water. It was missing in action the whole year I spent in residence, being restored. It looks beautiful.

The lawns are drier than I’ve seen them. We do need a little rain.

But the flowers are as spectacular as ever.

“Eliza’s Peculiar Cabinet of Curiosities” will remain on display at least through October 30, so you still have plenty of time to check it out. There have been several performances at the Garden in association with the installation. One final dance performance is scheduled for September 17. I’m putting it on my calendar. Hope you’ll join me there.

For more information go to the Lynden Sculpture Garden website.