Best Picks for Gallery Night

This Friday’s Gallery Night is the start of a very busy art weekend. A slate of new shows are opening, there are intriguing artist talks scheduled, and opportunities abound to see and participate in art making of your own. You can’t get to everything, so which ones should you choose? Here’s a rundown that may help you decide.

NEW EXHIBITIONS 

It is time once again for the quarterly Gallery Night and Day. More than 60 venues are participating in the Third Ward, Downtown, and other areas. As is customary, it is opening night for many exhibitions, including the following highlights.

Animals in Art 

David Barnett Gallery

1024 E. State Street

A number of marquee names are on the bill for this show, described as a “magical exhibition.” Artists conjuring up the wild kingdom include Paul Gauguin, James Audubon, Marsden Hartley, and Ben Shahn.

Dane Haman, Untitled. Courtesy Dean Jensen Gallery.

Independent Phrases and Subordinate Clauses: Photographs by Dane Haman, Jon Horvath, and Tom Zust

Dean Jensen Gallery

759 N. Water Street

It is a curious juxtaposition, as the exhibition title references writing structures in the guise of photography by these three artists. Their visual language takes cues from daily life, people, and places. Each of the three photographers know how to cleverly turn their own visual phrase.

Vital Technology 

Vital Technology opens this weekend at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design.

Re-Imagining – Re-Imaging 

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design

273 E. Erie Street

MIAD opens two exhibitions with technological overtones. Bryan Cera and Nathaniel Stern are featured in Vital Technology where interactivity, digital media, and the human response form inspirations and questions. Re-Imagining – Re-Imaging similarly springs from interactivity, with a connection to historical design through the incorporation of words and objects.

Nathaniel Stern: Rippling Images 

Mary Alice Wimmer: Earthly Delights

Nancy Mladenoff, The Ladies: Yvonne Craig, Batgirl. Courtesy Tory Folliard Gallery.

Nancy Mladenoff: The Ladies 

Tory Folliard Gallery

233 N. Milwaukee Street

A scanner is not just for the office anymore. Nathaniel Stern shows work made through the use of a digital underwater scanner to capture images of living coral reefs. Mary Alice Wimmer is an artist into still life and vanitas paintings, executing them beautifully and keeping them just on the edge of subtly strange. Nancy Mladenoff’s The Ladies are a lively bunch, embracing feminine characters of superhero comics, pop culture fame, and even the neighbor lady on wash day.

Lit Up 

The Pitch Project 

706 S. 5th Street

Friday 5 – 11pm

Lit Up is an exhibition created by the artistic duo, Gurl Don’t Be Dumb.  Comprised of Chicago-based artists Eileen Mueller and Jamie Steele, they will take over The Pitch Project with sculpture, photographs, and video in their characteristically satirical spirit. GDBD will also host a pop-up shop in the exhibition space during Gallery Night.

THIS WEEKEND

In addition to the fresh shows opening, there are some special events and one-night only exhibitions happening.

Eddee Daniel pictures the Menomonee Valley during a year-long artist residency.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17 

Menomonee Valley Artist Residency Open House 

Zimmerman Architectural Studios

2122 Mount Vernon Avenue

Friday 5-8pm

Eddee Daniel has been working in the Menomonee Valley, documenting, picturing, and musing on the changing character of this industrial corridor. In conjunction with Gallery Night, Zimmerman Architectural Studios (accessible from 25th Street between St. Paul and Canal Street), hosts a show of Daniel’s work before the close of his year-long residency.

Work by Oli Watt. Courtesy The Ski Club.

Oli Watt 

The Ski Club 

3172 N. Bremen

Friday 7-9pm

Printmaker Oli Watt will be featured in this exhibition. Watt enjoys an internationally recognized reputation as an artist, and currently serves as Assistant Professor in the Printmedia Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18

Nathaniel Stern: Rippling Images 

Tory Folliard Gallery

233 N. Milwaukee Street

1-4pm

Nathaniel Stern will be at Tory Folliard Gallery to talk about his underwater scanning techniques and “compressionism,” used in the making of his work on view in this new exhibition.

Graceful Line, Lives and Love

Milwaukee Public Library Central Library Building

Rare Books Room

2-4pm

The art of Ruth Grotenrath and Schomer Lichtner is vibrant, bright, and complex, and so was their life together. Museum of Wisconsin Art Director of Collections and Exhibition, Graeme Reid, will tell the story of this pair of important Wisconsin artists.

Ofrenda Workshop 

RedLine Milwaukee 

1422 N. 4th Street

12-3pm

The art of ofrendas is part of a workshop this Saturday at RedLine Milwaukee.

$10 adults / $5 children

It is your chance to be part of the art in celebration of Día de los Muertos. RedLine offers a photogram workshop, described as “painting with light,” in which participants may decorate a t-shirt or use a small personal object as an inspiration for an image added to their Ofrendas altar. Participants are also invited to wear their hand-designed t-shirt in the 4th annual Día de los Muertos parade on November 1. Visit the RedLine website for more information on the parade and events, or  RSVP for the workshop at redline.education@gmail.com.

Gallery Night Preview