Visual arts happenings, June 3 – 10

Openings

Jason Rohlf: Errant Compass, Tory Folliard Gallery, 6/5

New York artist Jason Rohlf (no relation, as far as we know, to Charles Rohlfs, the furniture artist on exhibition at Milwaukee Art Museum this week — see below)  is known for dense, abstract paintings — and recently scored a major commission from the Metropolitan Transit Authority to recreate one of his works in large scale at an NY train station. Half-obscured lines and forms float under heavy layers of varnish, interrupted by bursts of  bright, stunning geometric shapes. Meet the artist at a reception on Friday 6/5 from 5 to 7 p.m.

Annual Members Show, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, 6/5

In a tradition nearly 20 years strong, the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts has once again invited its member artists to participate in a show that spans generations, media, methods, philosophies and life experiences. See relative newcomers and seasoned vets  alike explore a wide variety of themes in one big, diverse celebration of the WPCA community.

American Originals, Milwaukee Art Museum, 6/6

This rare two-fer features two distinct exhibitions of turn-of-the-century American art.  In The Eight and American Modernisms, more than 50 paintings and 30 works on paper explore the styles of the eight urban realist painters considered the first American modernists: Arthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice B. Prendergast, Everett Shinn and John Sloan. It’s among the first scholarly exhibitions to explore the formal qualities of each artist’s work and much of the show is drawn from the Milwaukee Art Museum’s excellent and extensive collection.

In The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs, experience the work of a charismatic furniture maker who claimed no connection to any aesthetic movement or stylistic tradition. See over 40 of his lyrical, virtuosic creations in the first major museum exhibition to bring together the designer’s rich body of work. It’s also the first main-gallery show for the Chipstone Foundation, one of the country’s most formidable decorative arts collections.

Closings

Marina Bychkova: Enchanted Doll, Villa Terrace, 6/7

Last chance to see the intricate, gorgeously handcrafted, foreboding porcelain dolls of Russian-born artist Marina Bychokova. The works use the artistically underappreciated form of the handmade doll to blur the line between art and craft and explore the dark underpinnings of popular cultural fairy tales.